The Powerpacks Tesla is providing for its South Australia battery project will use lithium-ion battery cells from Samsung SDI— instead of those from its long-term partner Panasonic, BBB has confirmed.
South Australia’s state government announced in July it had chosen the US tech giant to deliver “the world’s largest” battery system in the region.
Under the terms of the deal, Tesla is providing the 100MW/129MWh Powerpacks system to be paired with French utility Neoen’s Hornsdale wind farm near Jamestown.
A Tesla spokesperson told BBB the Powerpacks being manufactured for the South Australia project at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, are using cells produced by Samsung SDI.
However, the spokesperson declined to comment on the reasons for using Samsung over Panasonic for the South Australia project.
Panasonic began producing battery cells for Tesla’s Model 3 mass-market electric vehicle at the $5 billion Nevada Gigafactory last June. The Japanese electronics company said it expected to see a profit from the Model 3 batteries by the end of the year.