Tesla has had a tough history with the production of its battery cells. The past few years have shown a troubled relationship between Panasonic and Tesla.
With the unprecedented growth of the Tesla factory in Nevada also known as “Gigafactory 1”, it has become the largest producer of li-ion batteries in the world.
Nonetheless Tesla still claimed that the Panasonic cell production was in fact restricting Tesla’s complete production of its Model 3 vehicle.
Tesla was in talks of just moving to its own independent production of battery cells as they wanted to continue its growth, and hold its demand with continuous production of batteries.
Panasonic we’re reportedly dropping their interest to continue working with Tesla in this manner as battery prices kept dropping, and they were as a result on track to lose money with the whole operation.
Nonetheless Reuters came out with a report today that detailed Panasonic's CFO commenting on the subject with surprising optimism.
“‘We are seeing strong demand from Tesla’ beyond the Nevada plant’s current capacity of 35 gigawatt hours per year, Panasonic chief financial officer Hirokazu Umeda told an earnings briefing on Monday. ‘We are in discussions right now’ about expanding the plant’s capacity, he said. “ - Hirozaku Umeda.
It seems that Panasonic is still interested in continuing to work with Tesla on their Gigafactory 1 in Nevada.
What about the outcome of Tesla slowly moving to produce its own batteries?
While there has been significant rumors of these actions coming into reality, we are forced to believe that the relationship between Tesla and Panasonic seems like a necessary one for both parties.
We don’t believe that this relationship will go anywhere any time soon.
Here is the complete reuters article:
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