Panasonic Hopes To Recharge Tesla Battery Partnership, Eyes Gigafactory Expansion

Panasonic Corp’s PCRFF CFO, speaking at an earnings briefing Monday, said the company is seeing "strong demand" for Tesla Inc TSLA battery cells and is in talks to expand the Nevada Gigafactory, according to Reuters.

Since 2014, Panasonic and Tesla have had an agreement that lays out their cooperation on a large-scale battery manufacturing plant known as the Gigafactory.

Yet this relationship has been deteriorating over the past few years, with Tesla moving to make its own batteries, according to Electrek.

"We are seeing strong demand from Tesla” beyond the Nevada plant’s capacity of 35 gigawatt hours per year, said Panasonic CFO Hirokazu Umeda, adding that Panasonic is "in discussions right now” about expanding the plant’s capacity.

The production at the Nevada gigafactory has resumed after a shutdown due to the coronavirus.

Tesla also restarted production at its Fremont, California factory late last week after CEO Elon Musk defied local orders.

Tesla's stock was up 0.78% at $805.40 per share at the time of publication Monday. The stock has a 52-week high of $968.99 and a 52-week low of $176.99.

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Photo courtesy of Tesla.