Panasonic Holdings Corp announced plans to build at least two new factories in North America to produce battery cells used in electric vehicles.
The Japanese company expects to build the factories by 2030, according to a presentation published Thursday. The facilities would produce the 4680 battery, which is used in Tesla vehicles.
The goal is to reach an auto battery capacity of 200-gigawatt hours per year by March 2031 — four times its capacity as of March 2023.
The company has not yet decided on locations for the new factories.
"It could be Nevada, it could be Kansas or it could be somewhere else," CEO Yuki Kusumi told reporters.
In the meantime, Panasonic is running a pilot 4680 production line at its Wakayama factory in Japan and plans to expand production in the country with two new sites over the next two years.
The first is a production technology facility in Osaka slated for 2024, and the second is a next-generation battery development site in Kadoma planned for 2025.
Shares of Panasonic rose 0.5% Thursday morning to $10.33.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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