Panasonic is looking to buy land in the U.S. to build a large factory to make batteries for Tesla’s new electric car, Japan’s NHK reported. Panasonic is now considering spending billions of dollars to build the plant in Oklahoma or Kansas, NHK reported.
The two states are close to Texas, where Tesla is preparing a new electric car factory. The timeline for Panasonic’s U.S. project is unclear. NHK did not disclose its sources of information. In response, Panasonic said the plans reported by NHK were not announced by the company.
As a long-term supplier of Tesla, Panasonic has previously announced that it plans to build two new production lines at the Wakayama plant in Japan to start mass production of new lithium batteries for Tesla by the end of March 2024.
The new 4680 cells are five times larger than those currently supplied by Panasonic to Tesla. This could help Tesla reduce the cost of electric vehicles and increase the vehicle’s range on a single charge.