Yahoo TV

The car-maker alliance of Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi want to jumpstart their efforts towards electric vehicles.

That's according to two Reuters sources, who say a plan to triple investment in electric cars is set to be announced this week.

The French-Japanese alliance wants to deepen cooperation as competition in the EV sphere heats up.

The sources say the plan is to invest more than $23 billion over the next five years.

By 2030, they're hoping to have come up with more than 30 new battery EVs underpinned by five common platforms.

The automakers hope to make compact EVs as affordable as gasoline-fuelled vehicles of similar size.

Under the plan, they would jointly invest in capacity to produce battery technology in France, Britain, China and Japan.

The sources say that by standardising and sharing batteries, the alliance expects to cut battery manufacturing costs in half.

The alliance is also expected to share solid-state lithium-ion battery technology, which Nissan has been developing.

The 2030 plan was going to be announced at an event in Japan last autumn, according to sources, but was thrown off course due to the health crisis.

A Nissan spokesperson declined to "comment on speculation."