Source: Wall Street News
Source: Liu Qian
On Wednesday, Hirokazu Umeda, chief financial officer of Panasonic (ADR) (PCRFY.US) , revealed in a statement that Tesla (TSLA.US) is asking Panasonic Holdings to accelerate the development of the 4680 battery. Tesla’s demand for 2170 batteries also remains strong, according to Umeda.
While Umeda did not provide details about Panasonic’s upcoming U.S. factory, he emphasized that the company’s 2170 batteries for Tesla are still in high demand. Panasonic’s 2170 batteries are used in Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y at its Fremont, California, plant.
Umeda also hinted that Tesla is pushing Panasonic to increase development of 4680 cells. He said, “We cannot reveal more than what has been released, but we have received many requests. We have seen continued strong demand for 2170 batteries from Tesla, but have also been asked by (Tesla) to speed up 4680 batteries. battery development.”
According to Bloomberg, Panasonic is considering building a new battery factory in the U.S. to supply 4680 cells for Tesla vehicles. The candidate locations are Oklahoma and Kansas. Production will begin as early as 2024. Panasonic plans to operate the factory independently. .
Both Oklahoma and Kansas have been developing financial incentives for months to attract jobs from the Japanese company and factory. For Panasonic, the advantage of choosing these two locations is the proximity to Tesla’s recently opened new factory in Texas.
Panasonic already jointly operates a battery plant in Nevada with Tesla, with an initial production capacity of 35 gigawatt hours per year, Panasonic has invested about 200 billion yen ($1.5 billion), and the current production capacity is about 39 thousand per year. MWh. The new plant is likely to be of a similar size.
Back in 2020, Tesla announced the 4680 battery. The 4680 battery is a new and larger battery with lower cost and higher energy density. It has a diameter of 46mm and a height of 80mm. Due to its higher battery capacity, the 4680 battery can effectively reduce the number of electric vehicle batteries, so the manufacturing cost is lower, and the higher capacity also helps to improve the battery life.
The Model Y produced at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Texas already uses 4680 cells. Tesla is currently deploying capacity for 4680 cells at its Texas Gigafactory and Berlin, and it doesn’t expect to see a shortage of cells until it starts producing the Cybertruck next year.
A regular Cybertruck will likely use twice as much battery capacity as Tesla’s regular Model 3 and Model Y, its most popular models. In addition, Tesla plans to produce 500,000 vehicles a year at its factory in Texas, which will greatly increase Tesla’s demand for batteries. Tesla plans to get there by relying on in-house production and establishing partnerships with battery suppliers.
In addition to supplying the Tesla factory, Panasonic will also consider selling to other EV makers in the future. Of course, competition among EV battery makers is fierce. South Korea’s LG Energy Solutions and General Motors are investing $2.6 billion to build a battery plant in Lansing, Michigan. CATL is investing up to US$6 billion in battery projects in Indonesia with local partners.
According to data from South Korea’s SNE research company, CATL will rank first in the global electric vehicle battery market in 2021, with a share of about 33%, followed by LG Energy with 20%. Panasonic ranked third with 12%.
edit/ping
This article is reprinted from: https://news.futunn.com/post/15454218?src=3&report_type=market&report_id=205354&futusource=news_headline_list
This site is for inclusion only, and the copyright belongs to the original author.