Panasonic has told Tesla it won’t supply Chinese made batteries for locally built EVs and the automaker should look elsewhere, according to a media report.
The automaker last month began Model 3 trial production at its new Gigafactory 3 factory in Shanghai.
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But Tesla would have to rely on Chinese manufacturers, Panasonic’s chief said on Friday, according to the Nikkei.
Panasonic, till now the sole supplier of batteries to Elon Musk’s company, has “no plans to produce auto batteries in China”, its president Kazuhiro Tsuga said.
“It’s up to Tesla to decide whether it will use batteries we produce at the Gigafactory [in Nevada] or those made by Chinese companies,” Tsuga said.
Nikkei said Tsuga was speaking ahead of a presentation to investors about his Osaka-based company’s business plan. Not long ago, that plan centered on a burgeoning partnership with Tesla, as Panasonic looked to shift away from consumer electronics and toward corporate contracts.
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By GlobalDataPanasonic and Tesla built the US$5bn Gigafactory in Nevada together, launching mass production of batteries in 2017. Musk once described Panasonic’s technology as “the best in the world”.
But the relationship has grown increasingly strained, partly because profits have been hard elusive.
Nikkei had revealed last April Panasonic was freezing investment in the Nevada Gigafactory.
Though Panasonic and Tesla had not ended their partnership, they were both looking to reduce their interdependence, the report said.
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