LAS VEGAS, U.S. -- Panasonic Energy still plans to build a third electric vehicle battery plant in the U.S. despite scrapping a tentative plan last year to build a facility in Oklahoma, an executive told Nikkei Asia.
Allan Swan, president of Panasonic Energy of North America, discussed the plans on the sidelines of the CES electronics trade show in Las Vegas on Monday. Swan did not provide details but said the company, which supplies Tesla, still needs "more plants" to reach its goal of increasing annual production capacity from 50 gigawatt-hours currently to 200 gigawatt-hours by 2031.
"We are always looking [for a potential site]," he said. "Oklahoma is still an option."
The company has a plant in Nevada and is building a second one in Kansas.
When asked about the timeline for any announcement related to the investment, Swan said there would "probably [be] nothing in the next couple of months, but as we move to fiscal year 2024, you should definitely hear something." For the Osaka-based parent company, fiscal 2024 starts next April.
Panasonic recently ended its talks with the Oklahoma government about investing in the state. The company did not explain in detail the reasons for the decision, but it came amid speculation that the EV market might be not be growing as quickly as automakers initially hoped, with high interest rates and inflation cooling consumer sentiment.
But Swan denied that market trends affected the decision, saying there was "no slowdown" in demand for Panasonic's products. He said Panasonic was eyeing the U.S. in particular as "it's much more incentivized in America than in Canada."
One of Panasonic Group's top executives recently told Nikkei Asia that the reason for dropping the Oklahoma plan was not due to shrinking demand from Tesla, but because the Japanese company was prioritizing "searching for promising second or third new customers."
Panasonic's plant in Kansas is expected to include production lines intended for other customers besides Tesla.
The Japanese company has been trying to diversify its customers to reduce its reliance on Tesla for some years.
