Panasonic’s battery business foresees a full-year profit due to its partnership with Tesla.
Panasonic supplies Tesla with batteries from the Gigafactory in Nevada. The Model 3 and Model Y rely on these batteries, and with their high demand, the Japanese company has been busy. New optimizations have also improved the facility’s output.
In the previous year, Panasonic had an operating loss of 29.2 billion yen ($278 billion). But for its three quarters through December 2020, it only had an operating loss of 7.4 billion yen ($66.6 billion). (via Nikkei)
More importantly, Panasonic has stated that it foresees a group net profit of 150 billion yen ($1.43 billion) for its final quarter. But despite its lucrative business with Tesla, it is still facing challenges.
China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. (CATL) and South Korea’s LG Chem have already signed battery partnerships with Tesla.
Both companies supply Shanghai’s Gigafactory and are aggressively expanding their business. LG Chem, in particular, is expecting to become Tesla’s biggest supplier for batteries in the future.
Panasonic was once the world’s top battery maker, but lost its place in 2018. CATL and LG Chem are now fighting for that title, while Panasonic tries to catch up.
