The CEO of Panasonic said the company has no plans for Tesla to build a new battery plant in China. Panasonic is currently struggling to profit from the battery business it has teamed up with Tesla.
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Gasgoo News According to foreign media reports, the CEO of Panasonic said that the company has no plans for Tesla to build a new battery factory in China. Panasonic is currently struggling to profit from the battery business it has teamed up with Tesla.
On November 22, Kazuhiro Tsuga, CEO of Panasonic, told the media at a strategic conference: "At the moment we have no plans to build a factory in China for Tesla's China business."
He also said: "Tesla needs to decide for itself whether to use batteries made by other manufacturers in China or to purchase batteries from our Gigafactory 1 (Nevada, USA)."
Foreign media pointed out that this statement by Jinhe Yihong reflects that Panasonic is becoming more cautious about its battery business jointly operated with Tesla, which has not yet achieved sustainable profits. According to the latest quarterly financial report released by Panasonic this month, its second-quarter operating profit fell 12% to 83.9 billion yen. Earlier this year, Tsuga Kazuhiro admitted that he had previously underestimated the cost of developing auto parts and the risks associated with Tesla.
Hirokazu Umeda, chief financial officer of Panasonic, said at a financial conference that the joint venture with Tesla is rapidly increasing battery production, but has not improved production efficiency as planned. However, the joint venture company still plans to start making profits by the end of the fiscal year on March 31. "Tesla announced its profit in the latest financial report, which is positive for us."
Previous media reports said that Tesla is in in-depth negotiations with LG Chem from South Korea on battery supply. These batteries may be used in vehicles produced by Tesla's Shanghai plant.