Panasonic to Establish EV Battery Production Base with Subaru and Mazda in Japan

TapTechNews August 20th, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported that Panasonic Holdings has reached a final agreement with Subaru and Mazda to establish an electric vehicle battery production base in Japan.

Insiders revealed that Panasonic plans to build a new production line for Subaru in Gunma Prefecture, responsible for handling all the work from battery production to packaging. For Mazda, Panasonic will set up a packaging production line in Hiroshima Prefecture and Yamaguchi Prefecture, and it is expected to obtain battery cells from Panasonic's Osaka battery factory.

The report pointed out that Subaru and Mazda plan to start full-scale mass production of electric vehicles by 2030, and the new battery production base will also consider using the vacant space of Subaru and Mazda's existing factories at that time.

Panasonic currently has only Tesla as an electric vehicle power battery customer. Due to the slowdown of electric vehicle demand in North America and the reduction of Tesla's orders, Panasonic's performance will also be affected. TapTechNews noticed that in order to get rid of the dependence on Tesla, Panasonic also announced in March this year to reach an agreement with Subaru and Mazda to jointly provide batteries for electric vehicles.