Panasonic will supply new batteries for Tesla, charging speed may increase

 "The new battery will be ready soon."

On November 3, according to foreign media reports, Panasonic will produce new batteries for Tesla at its Gigafactory in Nevada. The new batteries are expected to increase the charging speed.

Not long ago, Celina Mikolajczak, vice president of battery technology at Panasonic North America Energy (PENA), publicly stated at the Stanford StorageX International Symposium that Panasonic has begun to convert production lines to increase battery energy density by 5%. And the new product has excellent charging speed.

The battery that Mikrazka mentioned is the 2170 battery produced by Panasonic and Tesla in the Nevada Gigafactory, which powers Model 3 and Model Y.

Coincidentally, not long ago, Tesla increased the cruising range of its models, and all models of Model X, Model 3 and Model Y have been upgraded between 8 kilometers and 50 kilometers.

However, Mikrazka did not disclose when the transformed production line will be put into production, only that "new batteries will be ready soon."

The Nevada Gigafactory is a joint venture between Panasonic and Tesla, which produces batteries for Tesla. It was officially launched in 2017. The early cooperation between Panasonic and Tesla was not pleasant, and Tesla was on the verge of bankruptcy due to the black hole of production capacity. In recent years, as Model 3 sales have risen, this transaction has begun to bring dividends to both parties.

In February of this year, Hirokazu Umeda, Panasonic’s chief financial officer, said that the company’s and Tesla’s losses in the battery plant operating in Nevada have been compensated because the increase in production has reduced the cost of raw materials.

Especially after Tesla successively reached cooperation with new battery suppliers such as LG Chem and CATL, Panasonic also showed a more positive attitude.

In June of this year, Panasonic and Tesla signed a new three-year cooperation plan. Subsequently, Matsushita stated that its NCA ternary lithium battery technology has continued to improve. It has increased the energy density by 5% and is expected to increase to 20% within 5 years. It plans to build a cobalt-free battery within two years.

In August of this year, according to the Nikkei Asian Review, Panasonic continued to invest an additional US$100 million in the Nevada Gigafactory to add a production line. Umeda also said that the company has decided to open a new production line at its Nevada plant next year. By around 2022, the plant's total production capacity will increase by about 10% to 38GWh to 39GWh per year.

At the end of October, Panasonic stated that it would cooperate with Tesla to produce the 4680 new battery, and is already preparing to set up a prototype production line.