Tesla, Panasonic refuse to increase production at Gigafactory 1


04/12/2019

Tesla and Panasonic have temporarily abandoned the idea of increasing production at Gigafactory 1, the world's largest factory for the production of batteries for electric vehicles, according to Nikkei.



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The agency sources report that the joint venture partners planned to increase capacity of the plant by 50% next year, but changed their mind due to financial problems. The power of Gigafactory 1 is now equivalent to 35 GW per hour, and by 2020 it was supposed to grow to 54 GW per hour. But the lack of proper demand for electric cars and the low profitability of the business prevented Tesla and Panasonic plans.

The factory in the US state of Nevada produces batteries for the first mass electric car Tesla Model 3. However, the demand for them was not as high as originally expected. Tesla sales in the first quarter of this year fell by 30% compared with the beginning of 2018. The Panasonic battery division has completed 2018, with a loss of $ 180 million.

Against the background of this news, Tesla shares at the opening of trading on the NASDAQ sank 2.85%.

source: nikkei.com