Increased production of Tesla batteries, made by Panasonic, will be in Kansas City and will start after the year 2024
Panasonic is currently supplying Batteries of lithium for Tesla from the joint venture in Nevada and Japan. Battery production lines in the country are more effective, and Panasonic is currently looking to improve battery manufacturing processes in the US so that US factories can drive the efficiencies of Japan. There are Panasonic reserves to increase productivity by 10%.
Some Japanese technicians went to Nevada in the first half of 2022 to optimize Panasonic battery production at a local traction battery factory, according to the Nikkei Asian Review. In the future, the improvement of the factories should boost the annual production of traction batteries with a total capacity of 43 GWh.
In the USA, Panasonic will increase the production of batteries with 2170 size lithium cells, which have been used for a long time and should, little by little, give way to more modern cells of the 4680 type. Panasonic already manufactures these last batteries in its pilot line in Japan and the US. At the quarterly conference, preceding the last one, Elon Musk admits that this year Tesla's capabilities will not be limited by the number of available 4680 cells.
Improvement in Tesla's battery production plants will not be done before 2024
Panasonic said in July that it is planning to build a new battery cell facility in Kansas, but that venture won't come off until the year 2024 at the earliest.
The Chinese media spoke directly in the week of August 08th about the possibility of Tesla use battery packs manufactured by the Chinese company BYD at its factory in Berlin. Tesla's electric vehicles now use cylindrical battery cells and the modification to batteries would extremely complicate battery production processes in Berlin, so these rumors should be treated with caution.
It is possible, however, that in some models of the following years of electric vehicles, Tesla foresees the use of Panasonic batteries of different layout, mainly in China, where it is highly dependent on local suppliers.
Tesla uses BYD batteries in its electric cars
According to the Chinese press, Tesla would already be using BYD's blade batteries (Blade) in its vehicles developed at the giant factory in Berlin, a unit that was established this year and is in the process of being ramped up.
According to the report on the Sinatech website, the first units of the Blade battery will be in the Tesla Model Y models assembled at the German factory in the period between the end of August and the beginning of September. It is also claimed that the batteries will not be used at Tesla's Shanghai factory, at least not at this first moment.
If we think about the battery producer's past, according to Lian Yubo, executive vice president of BYD and director of the Automotive Engineering Research Institute, he had already spoken about the partnership in an interview with state media CGTN. At the meeting, the executive commented that BYD will soon supply blade batteries to Tesla.
At first, the only Tesla vehicle equipped with Blade batteries will be the Model Y electric SUV, according to sources connected to the matter. However, it is a partnership that grows slowly, and the full use of Blade batteries could be extended to next year.
