Panasonic Holding, which is already producing batteries for Tesla, announced at the annual investor event on June 1, 2022 that it had supplied samples of its more powerful 4680 format electric car battery to the US electric car manufacturer Tesla. Although Tesla will produce its own 4680 cells in the Gigafactory Grünheide and Texas in the future, Elon Musk has repeatedly emphasized that previous battery suppliers will still be needed.
Panasonic said mass production of the new battery will begin in the new fiscal year from March 2023 at its plant in Wakayama, Japan. In the future, production of the new 4680 cells will be moved to North America to support Tesla's expansion plans. The CEO (Kazuo Tadanobu) of Panasonic Energy Division also added that a pilot line for prototypes of the new 4680 cells is already running on a large scale in Japan.
Electric car maker Tesla is currently Panasonic's only customer for the new cells, which are about five times larger than those Panasonic currently supplies. The new cells are also expected to reduce production costs and increase range.
Source: Reuters/ Panasonic
