Panasonic has launched mass production of batteries for electric vehicles at a new plant in Kansas
Panasonic Energy (part of the Panasonic Group) has officially opened a new plant for the production of cylindrical lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles in De Soto, near Kansas City, USA. The facility has become one of the largest battery plants in North America.
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The opening ceremony of the enterprise took place on 14 July. At the same time, the company announced the launch of mass production of 2170 format cells. In the long term, Panasonic plans to achieve an annual production capacity of about 32 GWh at this facility.
The Kansas plant is built on a site of about 300 acres (more than 225 American football fields) and is Panasonic's second production facility in the US after the Nevada facility, which has produced about 41 GWh of batteries annually since 2017. Once the new plant reaches full capacity, Panasonic's total production capacity in the US will reach approximately 73 GWh.
Panasonic Energy's plant in Kansas, US. Photo: Panasonic
Panasonic Energy has been manufacturing lithium-ion batteries for almost 30 years and for about eight years in the US. The Nevada plant has become one of the largest in North America, with more than 4,000 employees and more than 11 billion cells shipped since start-up.
Compared to the Nevada facility, the new Kansas plant will be 20 per cent more productive thanks to automated lines. In the future, the company plans to introduce new materials that will increase cell capacity by about 5%.
The Panasonic facility has become the largest industrial investment project in the history of the state of Kansas. The plant will create up to 4,000 direct jobs and up to 8,000 jobs including related industries and suppliers.
To date, Panasonic has supplied about 19 billion battery cells for about 3.7 million electric vehicles worldwide. Its cells have an energy density of up to 800Wh/L, and there have been no vehicle recalls with them. Panasonic's largest partner in the US is Tesla.
Source: Panasonic Energy
