Panasonic's battery company plans to build its third factory in the US. While it terminated a battery project in Oklahoma last month, Panasonic Energy said it was not because of the soft demand. Executives said at CES 2024 that the company will finalize the third battery plant in the fiscal year 2024, which ends on March 31, 2025.
In 2013, Panasonic built an EV battery factory in Nevada with Tesla. In 2022, the Japan-based company decided to construct its second US plant in Kansas, targeting mass production in fiscal 2024. Reuters reported that the two plants will create an annual production capacity of 80GWh.
Panasonic Energy aims to grow its total capacity to 200GWh by March 2031 to remain a major player in EV batteries. Therefore, the company must construct more facilities.
Oklahoma seemed to be a promising candidate for Panasonic after the company signed an agreement with the state government regarding investment rebates in April 2023. However, Panasonic announced in December that it would no longer pursue the project without specifying why. Rumors arose that the termination resulted from the slow demand for EVs.
According to Nikkei, Allan Swan, president of Panasonic Energy of North America, said at CES 2024 that the company will not decide the new plant's location in the coming months but is expected to reveal it in fiscal 2024.
Panasonic had planned to finalize the location by March 2024.
Swan said the company has to build more factories to supply Tesla. He also denied that Panasonic gave up the Oklahoma project due to soft battery demand. The president emphasized that demand for Panasonic batteries does not slow.
A Panasonic executive said the company terminated the plan for Oklahoma because it was considering prioritizing new customers other than Tesla. Panasonic Energy is trying to diversify its customer base to reduce reliance on Tesla. The battery company has been in touch with Mazda and other carmakers.
The US EV policy will also affect battery makers' investment plans. Yuki Kusumi, Panasonic Group president and CEO, said at CES that although Panasonic can estimate demand for EVs toward 2030, the results of the US presidential election in November will create uncertainty. He was worried that the next US president would change the country's EV policy.
Kusumi said Panasonic will not build new battery plants if EV customers do not commit to a certain amount of battery procurement. He did not specify details for the third US plant, only saying the company has yet to finalize the project.
