Panasonic announced Monday that its energy company will open a new manufacturing facility at its Wakayama plant in western Japan to produce Tesla's new 4680 lithium-ion battery for electric vehicles in 2020. Panasonic also said that production there will begin before March 2024, and the batteries produced will mainly be for the international market.
Panasonic has previously said that in order to promote the rapid adoption of electric vehicles, it is working to expand its automotive lithium-ion battery series, and they are currently developing new 4680 high-capacity lithium-ion batteries at various locations in Japan, and will gradually develop manufacturing capabilities in preparation for a full launch.
Although Musk has previously said that Tesla will make its own batteries, they will also continue to source batteries from Panasonic or other battery manufacturers due to production volume and other reasons.
According to this announcement, the annual production capacity of Panasonic's Sakayama plant is expected to be about 10 Gwh per year, which is equivalent to about 150,000 batteries required for electric vehicles, and the overall production capacity will also account for 20% of Panasonic's current production capacity.
And according to Panasonic's announcement, they plan to start part of the new plant this year and then start mass production next year, so overall its March 2024 schedule may be relatively conservative.