California-based Tesla and Japan-based Panasonic have come to a 3-year agreement in which Panasonic will manufacture and supply lithium-ion battery cells at the Gigafactory in Nevada.
The agreement outlines the terms for production capacity commitments by Panasonic and purchase volume commitments by Tesla over the first 2 years of the relationship.
They broke ground on the Gigafactory outside Sparks, Nevada, in June 2014 and now produces more batteries in terms of kWh than all other carmakers combined.
The battery manufacturing supply chain has three main parts: cell manufacturing, module manufacturing, and pack assembly.
Design of Gigafactory 1 optimizes simplicity, effectiveness, and minimization of effort, with Panasonic responsible for the cell manufacturing and Tesla handling the module manufacturing and pack assembly — all in the same facility.
This manufacturing process in Nevada is indicative of supply chain efficiency at all its Gigafactories.
The amount of energy stored in the battery determines the range of the EV, and range is a big deciding factor when consumers decide on which EV is right for them.
Other reports indicate that both are in continued negotiations to expand the battery joint venture’s capacity. Panasonic had dropped hints last month that it was looking ahead to develop new batteries with Tesla, possibly with higher capacity.
Reference- Tesla PR, Panasonic Newsroom, Clean Technica, InsideEVs