TOKYO, May 18 (Reuters) – Japan’s Panasonic Holdings Corp (6752.T) is aiming to ramp up production of battery cells for electric vehicles by building at least two new factories in North America, it said on Thursday.
The company, whose power unit makes batteries for Tesla Inc. (TSLA.O), aims to boost car battery capacity to 200 gigawatt-hours per year by March 2031, about four times the level at the end of March, it said in a statement. a presentation on its website.
Panasonic plans to build at least two new factories to produce 4680 batteries in North America by 2030, a spokesperson confirmed to Reuters.
Panasonic has yet to decide where in North America it will add production capacity, said Yuki Kusumi, the company’s Group Chief Executive Officer.
“It could be Nevada, it could be Kansas or it could be somewhere else,” Kusumi said at a news conference after giving a presentation on the company’s strategy.
Panasonic and trading house Marubeni Corp (8002.T) will build a delivery network in Japan that will use small electric delivery vans, the Nikkei newspaper said later on Thursday.
The companies will form a joint venture around June that will be tasked with issues ranging from installing charging units to managing vehicle batteries, Nikkei said, adding that they will deploy hundreds of EV vans in about two years.
Panasonic and Marubeni declined to comment on the report.
Panasonic is running a pilot production line for the 4680 at its Wakayama factory in Japan, while Tesla is already manufacturing the 4680 battery cells, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk has touted as key to making cheaper and more attractive electric cars.
Panasonic will also set up two other new branches in the next two years to deepen its battery knowledge in Japan.
One is a manufacturing technology facility that it will establish in Osaka city in 2024, and the other is a new and next-generation battery development site that it aims to set up in 2025 in the neighboring city of Kadoma.
Reporting by Daniel Leussink; Edited by Jacqueline Wong