Panasonic has announced that it is working on a new battery pack that will be based on the recently unveiled Tesla 4680 battery.
Panasonic CFO Hirokazu Umeda said the company has the know-how for the new battery and is preparing to launch a prototype production line. Additional Panasonic manufacturing facilities will open at Gigafacotry Nevada next year. The new line will increase the plant's capacity by about 10 percent by 2022.
"We have considerable know-how for that battery," said Umeda. "We started working on it immediately after Tesla's Battery Day and are also preparing to set up a prototype production line in parallel."
On September 22, Tesla unveiled a new battery design—the 4680 tabless cell. Thanks to this increase, the company gets five times more energy, 16% more range, and six times more power. It also lowers the dollar-per-kilowatt hour cost of the battery by 14%. That is, the larger form factor is key, as it gives the battery significant advantages and costs less to manufacture.
For the time being, Tesla continues to work closely with its partner Panasonic and may significantly depend on them for its current models’ battery supply. However, as Tesla's battery cell manufacturing capacity expands over time, the company’s reliance on Panasonic's battery cells will eventually also drop off substantially. Therefore, it’s not surprising to see Panasonic striving to match their product development with the ever-changing needs of the California company.
© 2020, Eva Fox. All rights reserved.
_____________________________
We appreciate your readership! Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Article edited by @SmokeyShorts, you can follow him on Twitter
About the Author
Eva Fox
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.
