Following Panasonic's announcement of battery production expansion in Kansas, US, the Japanese battery maker announced on Dec 13 that it will supply EV batteries for Lucid Motors' luxury EVs: Lucid Air and Gravity SUV.
Panasonic Energy and Lucid Group said they have entered into multi-year agreements for battery supply. Panasonic has been Tesla's battery partner for a long time and currently manufactures in both Wakayama, Japan and Nevada, US.
The Japanese battery manufacturer plans to begin mass production of 4680 battery cells in Wakayama, starting from 2024, and deliver to North America. By November, the company said it has broken ground to a new facility in Kansas, US to mass produce 2170 battery cells; the Kansas site, which was partly funded by the state incentive, is expected to start mass production in 2025.
According to Bloomberg, Panasonic has stressed that it is prioritizing profit and dedication to safety over market share. Even as the Kansas facility comes online, it will only increase Panasonic's battery output by about 60% to 80GWh, the company was cited last month by Bloomberg.
Panasonic Group's energy segment (automotive battery, industrial energy solution, consumer energy solution, and others) generated a total of JPY764.4 billion (US$5.57 billion) in the fiscal year of 2022 (the year ending on March 31, 2022).
For FY23 (April through September 2022), the company projects a total revenue of JPY848 billion from energy segment.
So far in FY23, the company's energy segment has generated JPY469.8 billion in sales revenue.
