Third Panasonic EV battery factory in the U.S. still possible

Panasonic may build its third electronic vehicle (EV) battery production factory in the U.S. This plan was decomposed last year after an initial discussion on selecting Oklahoma.

Allan Swan, President of Panasonic Energy of North America discussed the plans on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2024. However, Swan didn’t reveal further details about the plant.

But the company leader still needs “more plants” to increase battery production from 50 gigawatt-hours currently to 200 gigawatt-hours by 2031.

Yet, he still betting on Oklahoma as a potential site for the battery plant.

Panasonic Battery Plant

Panasonic already has a plant in Nevada and last year, it broke ground for a new plant construction in Kansas for lithium-ion batteries.

This plant aims to manufacture 2170 cylindrical Li-ion batteries to cope with EV battery demand. The production at this facility is likely to start by March 2025.

Once completed, the Kansas factory will produce a capacity of approximately 30 GWh for EV makers in the U.S.

According to NikkeiAsia, an announcement from Panasonic regarding this third battery factory could come by the end of 2024 or in the first half of 2025.