Panasonic Says Tesla Will Get Top Priority in Supply of 4680 Batteries

   By Yang Jie 
 

TOKYO--Panasonic Corp., a battery supplier to electric-vehicle maker Tesla Inc., said it expected to start trial production this year of a new, more powerful lithium-ion battery.

Last October, the company showed off prototypes of the battery, which is called 4680 because it is 46 millimeters in diameter and 80 millimeters high. It is larger than previous battery cells Panasonic has supplied to Tesla.

The company is renovating its facilities and expects to start trial production in Wakayama prefecture, near Panasonic's headquarters in Osaka, early in the fiscal year that begins in April, Chief Financial Officer Hirokazu Umeda said Wednesday. A spokeswoman said the time and place of mass production haven't been decided yet.

"Tesla has put in an extremely strong request for the 4680, so when we are actually able to deliver the 4680, we plan to put top priority on Tesla," Mr. Umeda said.

The Panasonic spokeswoman said the company's business with Tesla accounted for about 60% of the revenue in Panasonic's energy business, which reported revenue of 194.3 billion Japanese yen ($1.69 billion) in the three months ended Dec. 31. That suggests the Tesla business brought in roughly $1 billion for Panasonic in the quarter.

Mr. Umeda said shipments of EV batteries to Tesla were interrupted by logjams at ports in recent months, but didn't specify which ports were affected

Write to Yang Jie at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 02, 2022 09:46 ET (14:46 GMT)

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