Panasonic gears up to supply a boatload of battery cells to US-made Teslas.
Just outside of Kansas City, Kansas, plans for a brand new battery manufacturing plant headed up by Panasonic have taken shape. Initially announced this summer, Panasonic has just unveiled output details of the forthcoming plant – 30 gigawatt-hours are expected to come out of the first phase of the plant’s life, intended to supply Tesla vehicles with batteries. The plant is expected to cost $4 billion, and supply the Kansas City area with 4,000 jobs.
This is Panasonic’s second US battery manufacturing plant, with the first being in Nevada. There are rumblings that Panasonic may open a third plant, possibly in Oklahoma.
Construction hasn’t started yet on the plant, but Panasonic is expected to break ground sometime next month. In theory, the plant should be up and running by March 2025, and will quickly ramp up to the claimed 30 GWh of capacity. Most interestingly, though, is that Panasonic says the factory will be producing 2170 cells, which are almost exclusively used in Tesla vehicles. The larger format Panasonic 4680 cells may potentially be produced there in the future, though.
This all dovetails into the strong EV market, especially for Tesla. With the Inflation Reduction act, the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y once again qualify for tax credits. Given the increased demand, and caveats that any tax credit-eligible EV has battery manufacturing stipulations, the Panasonic plants would help Tesla meet those qualifications, and potentially ease any supply-chain-related slowdowns.
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