Panasonic to build EV battery plant for Tesla in Kansas, report says

Panasonic Holdings Corp. is planning to spend several billion dollars in a factory in Kansas to supply a new higher-potential battery for Tesla Inc.‘s electric powered motor vehicles, Nikkei described on Wednesday.

The Japanese conglomerate aims to triple or quadruple EV battery generation potential by fiscal 2028 from the recent stage of approximately 50 gigawatt-hours for each calendar year, in accordance to the report.

Previously in June, Reuters documented Panasonic was looking at probable manufacturing unit web sites in Kansas and Oklahoma to provide batteries to the U.S. electric powered automaker’s plant in Texas.

Panasonic by now has a manufacturing unit in Nevada that materials smaller sized batteries to Tesla.

Panasonic and Tesla did not immediately react to Reuters’ requests for comment. Kansas and Oklahoma governing administration officers were not immediately offered for remark.

The firm, which is Tesla’s battery provider for extra than a ten years, also said it had transported samples of its additional highly effective 4680 structure battery to the electrical-vehicle maker.

The new battery is about 5 occasions larger than people that Panasonic at this time supplies, meaning the U.S. electric automaker could be able to reduced generation expenses and increase vehicles’ driving variety.