CEO of Panasonic Energy Co., Kazuo Tadanobu, holds a prototype of the 4680 . format the battery cell, left, next to the current 2170 battery that Panasonic supplies Tesla. (Reuters)
Panasonic Holdings will invest several billion dollars in a plant in Kansas to supply new high-capacity batteries for Tesla’s electric vehicles, Nikkei reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, the Japanese conglomerate aims to triple or quadruple EV battery production capacity by fiscal 2028 from the current level of 50 gigawatt-hours per year.
Earlier in June, Reuters reported that Panasonic was looking at potential factory locations in Kansas and Oklahoma to supply batteries to the US electric car factory in Texas.
Panasonic already has a factory in Nevada to supply smaller batteries to Tesla.
Panasonic and Tesla did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. Kansas and Oklahoma government officials were not immediately available for comment.
The company, a battery supplier to Tesla for more than a decade, also said it has shipped models of its more powerful 4680 format batteries to the electric carmaker.
The new battery is about five times larger than the batteries Panasonic currently offers, meaning the US electric car maker can reduce production costs and increase the range of its vehicles.
