Panasonic Kansas

Tesla battery partner Panasonic has announced that they will be breaking ground for their new North American facility in Kansas as soon as November this year.

The Japanese company has been helping Tesla by supplying batteries through GigaNevada, but with Tesla - and almost every other EV-capable company - beginning a serious ramp up in production next year, Panasonic is looking to establish themselves in the market early.

Back in July the battery-maker earmarked Kansas as a potential site for its large factory, and the initial plan is to produce about 30 gWh of 2170 battery cells for Tesla once the plant fully ramps up by 2025 at the latest. Three years might seem like a lot of time, but we can't all be Tesla, people.

And even though Tesla is making efforts to bring battery production in-house, they definitely need some support if their growth projections work out the way they expect. There's some thought that Panasonic may even adapt the new Kansas facility to produce the new 4680 cells if Tesla ends up needing a hand with the ramp up. They did help develop that cell, after all.

The Inflation Reduction Act seems to have spurred a bunch of new development in the green energy space - as intended - so it's likely Panasonic is hoping to show that they could support more than one company with this facility.

Because Kansas wasn't the only spot Panasonic had looked at - they reportedly were considering a site in Oklahoma as well - so if they can manage to secure contracts with more than just Tesla, Panasonic would be in a strong position to break ground on another factory.

And hey, support for the swap to Green energy is great, but this factory is projected to create about 4000 new jobs, so this is just good news all around. Welcome to Kansas, Panasonic.