Citing strong demand for the company’s battery cells for use in Tesla vehicles, Panasonic has said they are in negotiations with the automaker to increase battery cell production at Giga Nevada.
During a briefing on Panasonic’s quarterly earnings on Monday, the Chief Financial Officer Hirokazu Umeda revealed they are also working to improve and possibly develop new batteries for Tesla.
“We will be working to improve materials and technologies throughout this financial year.“
The news of a possible expansion comes on the heels of Panasonic reporting its first quarterly profit at the plant during the last three months of 2019. It was a long wait for that profit, as the company has invested $1.6 billion into the plant since 2014. (via Business Insider)
Panasonic earlier this year decided to withdraw its production at Tesla’s other US factory, Giga New York. Most of the production there was for Tesla’s solar roof product, and citing not enough demand, ended up selling most of the cells it produced to company’s overseas.