Japan’s electronics producer Panasonic has established a company to produce and sell lithium-ion batteries for Tesla’s ‘Gigafactory’ in the US.
The Panasonic Energy Corporation of North America will be built on-site of Tesla’s $5 billion factory in Nevada, US. The US subsidiary is planned to reduce the cost of long-range battery packs and will expand the production process accordingly to Tesla’s electric vehicle (EV) delivery schedule to meet Tesla’s goal of mass-market EV’s.
Tesla’s plant is aimed to build 500,000 cars per year. Panasonic and Californian-based Tesla expect to produce 35GWh of battery packs per year by 2020.
Panasonic’s US subsidiary was established with a capital of $5m.
Telsa will unveil the Model X crossover next spring and the lower-priced Model 3 by 2017.
The gigafactory will also build solar energy storage for SolarCity, a solar energy systems supplier founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The 10m sq ft site is aimed to be ready for production in 2017.
Tesla received a $1.3 billion series of tax breaks from the state. It will not have to pay property or building taxes until 2024 and no local and state taxes until 2034.
