After recently revealing its plans to build one in Kansas, Panasonic, Tesla’s main battery cell supplier, is now again preparing to construct a new factory in the US.
No one wanted to supply Tesla Li-ion battery cells that would be used in an electric vehicle when the business first started looking for a battery source in the early 2000s. Manufacturers of batteries didn’t like the threat/reward of using Li-ion batteries in cars at the time because they were largely used in consumer devices.
Panasonic decided to give Tesla a try, and it may have been the smartest move it ever made. Thanks to Tesla’s success, batteries have become Panasonic’s main source of growth.
The Japanese manufacturer and Tesla expanded their collaboration by constructing a sizable battery factory there. In order to provide Tesla with extra battery cells, Panasonic revealed plans to build a second battery cell factory in Kansas last year.
As of right now, according to Nikkei, Panasonic is already considering building another battery manufacturing in the US:
As part of its intentions to increase domestic manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles, Panasonic Holdings is looking at Oklahoma as well as two other states in the United States for a sizable investment.
It’s unclear if this manufacturing would serve Tesla or not. Tesla announced it would purchase all the usable battery cells it could get its hands on. Tesla is still by far Panasonic’s largest customer.
According to reports, Kansas prevailed over Oklahoma to land the Panasonic facility that was revealed last year.
However, the article claims that Panasonic may once more choose to develop plants in Kansas or Nevada even though Oklahoma is apparently back in the running. The Japanese firm is reportedly willing to make battery investments in Canada and Mexico, according to the article.
E Auto Arena’s Opinion
Even though Panasonic recently revealed a new factory in the US, we have been inundated with news about new battery manufacturing facilities over the past two years.
Recently, there have even been rumours that Panasonic plans to erect a manufacturing in Quebec.
Given that battery factories are currently functioning as money-printing machines, we wouldn’t be surprised if the firm made an announcement shortly.
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