Electric vehicles (EV) are a competitive product right now, and as a result, Tesla has had no shortage of feuds within the market lately.
But in some recent good news about companies working together, Nikkei reported that Panasonic plans to invest over $100 million USD into Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory 1 battery plant. The investment will go towards a whole new production line, which will increase total production capacity by 10% to 39 gigwatt-hours per year.
This will be the first expansion of the Nevada Gigafactory since its opening in 2017. Along with the expansion of the physical production line, Panasonic hopes this investment can also help improve battery storage capacities by up to 5%.
A big ol' biggin like @panasonic doing solids for squeaky lil start-up @Tesla. Who'd've thought eh?! @stevenmarkryan 😉 https://t.co/Ujj3QUIhA7
— EV & Energy Showcase, Dromana, 🇦🇺Day (@CyberFitzy) August 19, 2020
The news comes as Tesla prepares to ramp up its production of the Model Y SUV, as well as next year’s Cybertruck. With both of these new EVs on the way and a record-breaking 2020 under his belt already, Tesla’s Elon Musk has already announced the company is facing limited battery production as a major challenge to growth.
Panasonic’s announcement also comes in response to news of Tesla’s stock shooting way up, which was reported by several stock analysts last week.
This investment marks the first increase in Tesla’s battery production since it announced a partnership with Panasonic years ago. The two companies are likely to share in a profitable future together, given that the demand for EV batteries is only set to increase at this point.
