Daily Management Review

Tesla is Working Exclusively with Panasonic for Model 3 Battery, Clarifies its CEO


06/08/2016




Tesla is Working Exclusively with Panasonic for Model 3 Battery, Clarifies its CEO
Panasonic shares rose after Tesla Motors’ chief executive said on Wednesday  that the US automaker is working exclusively with Panasonic Corp to supply batteries for the Model 3, its first mass-market car.
 
Samsung SDI was making progress in talks with Tesla to supply batteries for the electric car, as well as Tesla's energy storage systems, Reuters had reported a day earlier quoting sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
 
If and when Tesla's battery plant were not able to produce enough batteries to meet demand, Tesla was likely to add Samsung SDI as a supplier for Model 3, the soyrce was quoted by Reuters as saying. Tesla currently buys batteries from Panasonic.
 
However the report was denied by Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk throygh a tweet on Wednesday saying that the the company was "working exclusively with Panasonic for Model 3 cells."
 
The tweet further added that "news articles claiming otherwise are incorrect." The batteries in Tesla's Model S and Model X vehicles "are also Panasonic”, the Chief executive further tweeted.
 
"Tesla works with all leading battery manufacturers around the world, however we don't comment on the details of the programs with specific suppliers," a Tesla spokeswoman said on Tuesday by email to Reuters.
 
"Panasonic has been our battery cell supplier throughout the Model S and Model X programs," the statement reads, with Tesla "work[ing] very closely with Panasonic to ramp up battery cell production at the Gigafactory for Model 3," a Tesla spokesperson said in a statement sent to The Verge while denying to comment on details of programs with specific suppliers.
 
To meet demand for Tesla's first mass-market car, Panasonic was ready to bring forward its investment in Tesla's battery plant it is helping establish if required, the Japanese company had said last month.
 
$1.6 billion to Tesla's $5 billion "Gigafactory" in phases over the next few years is being planned to be contributed by the Japanese company to Tesla.
 
Tesla planned to boost total vehicle production to 500,000 in 2018 - two years earlier than its original target, Musk had announced in April this year citing "tremendous demand" for the cars. However following that statement many of the suppliers have said the goal will be difficult to achieve.
 
Tesla has said it would begin customer deliveries in late 2017 and has said that it has taken 373,000 orders for its Model 3 - which has a starting price of $35,000, about half its Model S.
 
"It remains to be seen whether the orders will translate into actual sales," the Reuters source said, asking not to be identified as the discussions were confidential.
 
A Samsung SDI spokesman declined to comment.

After surging 6.3 percent a day earlier, shares in Samsung SDI tumbled 8 percent on Wednesday after Musk’s tweet and spreading the news. On the other hand, after Musk's comment, shares in Panasonic closed up with a 3.5 percent gain after gaining as much as 6.3 percent to reach a one-week high on Wednesday.
 
(Source:www.reuters.com)