Tesla battery supplier Panasonic announced plans to boost its electric vehicle battery production at the American automaker’s Gigafactory Nevada, Nikkei Asia reports citing people familiar with the matter.
Panasonic, through its business unit Panasonic Energy, will establish its 15th production line at the Gigafactory.
Why is it necessary?
The Japanese battery maker has been urged to raise its production output of 2170 battery cells at Giga Nevada by 10% to meet Tesla’s demand, considering the rapidly intensifying competition in the EV industry.
Apparently, the EV giant told Panasonic that it would “buy as much as [Panasonic] can make,” a company executive asserted.
This significant move followed Panasonic’s May announcement to erect at least two new battery factories for Tesla 4680 battery cell production in North America by 2030. As a result, its annual battery production output will increase to 200-gigawatt hours by March 2031, indicating a four-fold improvement from this year. However, Panasonic did not disclose the factory’s location for the said additional production capacity.
Nonetheless, Panasonic’s production line at the Gigafactory Nevada is expected to hit an annual production capacity of 39 GWh, a 10% growth from the current 38 GWh. According to the report, this capacity can sufficiently support 500,000 to 700,000 Tesla Model 3s.
See Also:
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The 4680 battery cells, which CEO Musk has hailed as essential to generating more affordable and enticing electric cars, are already being produced by Tesla. In fact, Panasonic is already operating a pilot 4680 production line at its Wakayama factory in Japan.
