Panasonic Holdings Corp., the Japanese electronics manufacturer, is reported to be in talks to build an additional EV battery plant that will cost around $4 billion in the United States, according to the Wall Street Journal (via Reuters and Bloomberg).
Potential locations for the new plant include Oklahoma and Kansas, which are both considered for the first investment according to InsideEVs.
Panasonic chose Kansas over Oklahoma in July to be the location of a new battery plant that would generate up to 4,000 employment and an investment of up to $4 billion, as per state authorities. However, this time, it seems that Panasonic is looking at Oklahoma as the location for its new plant.
“Oklahoma is a likely location for the new plant, although there are no guarantees an agreement will be reached, according to the report. Any new facility would be on top of another $4 billion EV battery factory that Panasonic said in July it plans to build in Kansas.”
Panasonic has been the main supplier to Tesla for more than a decade, while its second biggest customer is Toyota. In an effort to meet the pressing demands for electric vehicles, Tesla has been ramping up its production and orders for batteries and raw materials.
“We are examining various growth strategies for our automotive battery business, but there is no further information that we can share at the moment aside from what we have already announced,” a Panasonic spokesperson said.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Nevertheless, the two $4 billion battery factories on top of the joint venture with Tesla at the Giga Nevada plant would significantly strengthen Panasonic’s position in the EV industry.
