Panasonic Investing $256M in Tesla’s Solar Cell Plant

Japanese company Panasonic has been expanding from their consumer electronic base and into more integrated components as well as business solutions so sticking with Tesla in their Solar Cell plant based out of New York seems like a good move. Panasonic’s investment is in the neighborhood of about 30 billion yen or $256 million USD and in exchange, Tesla is making a long-term purchase commitment from Panasonic, deepening their ties further.

The partnership was first announced in October 2016 but details were only announced publicly recently. Panasonic has many years of experience with battery technology which will be used in Tesla’s upcoming Model 3 just like they were the exclusive supplier for Tesla’s Model X and Model S. The model 3 is slated for 2017 release around March and Tesla is also planning to launch the solar cell roof, Powerwall 2, Model Y, Tesla Trucks and more.

Production of the photovoltaic modules in the Buffalo, New York factory will begin in summer of 2017 and surge to one gigawatt module production capacity by 2019. “When production of the solar roof begins, Tesla will also incorporate Panasonic’s cells into the many kinds of solar glass tile roofs that Tesla will be manufacturing,” according to the official press statement. Panasonic and Tesla have also joined forces on Tesla’s battery gigafactory in Reno, Nevada which is a $5 billion USD facility. The Reno facility will produce lithium-ion batteries for electric cards and energy storage products for homes and utilities.