Panasonic sells two consumer battery factories to increase power

Panasonic further strengthened its determination to increase its power lithium battery business. Nikkei reported that Panasonic announced on the 17th that it would sell its consumer battery production plants and a sales department in Poland and Belgium to the German asset management agency Aurelius Group, turning to the more promising power lithium battery field. Earlier, foreign media reported that Panasonic plans to cooperate with the Norwegian state-controlled oil and gas company Equinor and the aluminum company NorskHydro to discuss the opportunity to build a power lithium battery plant in Norway. The industry speculates that the important purpose of Panasonic's move is to supply batteries to Tesla's power lithium battery super factory in Germany. It is reported that Tesla plans to submit its production application for its super battery plant in Glenhead, Brandenburg, Germany by July, and hopes to start production in 2022, one year ahead of schedule, to produce its latest 4680 battery. Currently, Panasonic is building a 4680 battery pilot production line for Tesla at its Suminoe plant in Osaka, Japan, which is scheduled to be completed and put into production in 2022. At the same time, Panasonic announced that it will mass-produce 4680 batteries for Tesla at the US Super Battery Factory in the second half of the year. Obviously, Panasonic is actively preparing to strengthen cooperation with Tesla in battery supply, and the sale of two consumer battery plants in Europe will also help it to focus on the power business and increase its power supply funding support. . It is worth noting that although the cooperation between Panasonic and Tesla is deepening, Panasonic is not satisfied with it. Foreign media reported that the outgoing CEO of Panasonic Tsuga Kazuhiro said that Panasonic plans to reduce its heavy dependence on Tesla by producing batteries for other brands of electric vehicles. This means that although Panasonic will continue to strengthen its investment in the power lithium battery business in the future, it will gradually reduce its market dependence on Tesla and get rid of the development model of 'walking on one leg'. In fact, while battery factories are reducing their dependence on major customers, OEMs are also building a diversified supply system to reduce the risk of dependence on a single battery supplier. For example, Tesla has introduced three battery suppliers from Panasonic, LG Energy, and CATL, and has clarified a plan to produce hundreds of GWh of batteries on its own; Volkswagen announced that it will establish six power plants with an annual output of 40 GWh in Europe by 2030. Lithium battery factories further strengthen their control over battery production and supply. However, in the long run, OEMs are still inseparable from the support of battery companies on the road to electrification, thus providing more development opportunities for China, Japan and South Korea head battery companies such as CATL, Panasonic, LG Energy, and Samsung SDI. .