Nikkei Asia has reported that Panasonic will begin producing new electric car batteries for Tesla as soon as 2023. The new lithium-ion battery will be produced in Panasonic’s factory in Japan.
Panasonic plans to invest about 80 billion yen (£510 million/€621 million/$701 million) in new production facilities in Japan. The new battery pack costs up to less than 20 percent to produce and can increase range by around 15-20 percent. Hopefully, this will help to crush range anxiety and speed up the transition to electric vehicles (EVs).
In a statement to Reuters, Panasonic, said: “We are studying various options for mass production, including a test production line we are establishing this business year. We don’t, however, have anything to announce at this time.”
Panasonic first unveiled their 4680 format battery, which is 46 mm wide and 80mm tall, battery in October. At around five times as big as the batteries it currently supplies to Tesla, it’s also expected to reduce overall production costs.
Other electric car battery producers, including CATL, LG Energy Solutions and SK Innovations, are investing large amounts into new facilities as electric car sales around the globe continue to soar.
For example, CATL, who are china’s largest battery company, announced plans to invest $5 billion (£3.7 billion/€4.4 million) in a lithium battery plant in Indonesia and is also developing its first generation of sodium-ion batteries for electric cars.
