Panasonic Tesla 'marriage change' super factory investment 'stranded'

Before the expected loss of the first-quarter financial report was announced, Tesla’s partner and supplier Panasonic could no longer sit still. According to Nikkei News, due to 'financial problemsThe construction of the plant will cost approximately US$4.5 billion. In October last year, Panasonic President Kazuhiro Tsuga said that he would synchronize with Tesla and further invest US$9-13.5 billion. The two companies originally planned to increase Gigafactory1 production by 50% next year. However, according to the Nikkei News today, the plan was temporarily shelved due to 'financial problems.' Tesla's huge loss may be an important reason behind it. After the news became public, Tesla's stock price fell rapidly by 5% before the US stock market. Located in Reno, Nevada, USA, Gigafactory1 is a super factory invested and established by Tesla and Panasonic. The factory has been supplying batteries for Tesla's Model 3 series of electric vehicles since 2017. The manufacturing part is completed by Panasonic, and Tesla is responsible for assembly. Panasonic is the sole supplier of Tesla's lithium-ion battery, and the cost of the battery occupies about half of an electric car. In January of this year, Tesla's Shanghai plant officially broke ground. Subsequently, Panasonic said that it will supply batteries for Tesla's Shanghai plant through Gigafactory1, and will transfer the battery processing to my country after a period of time. However, in the fiscal year ending in March, Panasonic’s operating loss for Tesla’s battery business exceeded 20 billion yen, higher than the same period last year. The delay in starting processing Model 3 exacerbated this loss. According to the original plan, Panasonic and Tesla will jointly complete the next step of investment to expand the output of Gigafactory 1 from the current 35 kWh to 54 kWh, and further provide funds for the construction of the third plant in Shanghai. Although the investment plan is frozen, Panasonic said that they will continue to provide technical support and a small amount of batteries for Tesla electric vehicles. As Panasonic said, Tesla has some financial problems. Insufficient demand is an important aspect. Tesla announced its first-quarter transaction report earlier this month. The report showed that Tesla's deliveries in the quarter experienced a record drop. In the three months ended March 31, Tesla delivered a total of 63,000 vehicles, a decrease of 31% from the previous month. Among them, the delivery of Model 3 was also not as good as the disassembler's expectations. ModelS and ModelX also set the lowest delivery in the past year. . At that time, the market disaggregated that the decline came from two reasons: the reduction of tax credits and the obstruction of the delivery of cars in my country and Europe. On the one hand, this year, due to the reduction in federal tax credits, Tesla has lost many potential buyers. Tesla has chosen to reduce prices as a response, but this in turn has affected profitability. On the other hand, due to logistics obstacles, Tesla's sales performance in China and Europe is not good. Musk even publicly stated earlier this year that the first quarter results to be announced later this month may show some losses, ending the two-quarter profit that had just been achieved before. According to Bloomberg, citing Independent Research Frankfurt analyst Sven Diermeier, Tesla is facing an increasingly severe environment and there are problems with its ability to supply sustainable profits. As of now, Tesla's stock price, which is in the opposite direction of the broader market, has fallen 23% from its high at the beginning of this year, and closed at $276.06 on the previous trading day. However, according to Nikkei quoting a Tesla spokesperson, Tesla will continue to base its investment in Gigafactory.