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Tesla, Panasonic Agree to Build Gigafactory

By - Source: Tesla | B 18 comments

On Thursday, Tesla and Panasonic reached an agreement to build a "Gigafactory", a large-scale battery manufacturing plant in the United States.

According to Tesla, it will provide and maintain the land, buildings and utilities while Panasonic will manufacture and supply cylindrical lithium-ion cells. Panasonic will also invest in the equipment associated with the cells as well as machinery and other manufacturing tools. Supplier partners will provide the required precursor materials.

"Tesla will take the cells and other components to assemble battery modules and packs," the press release stated. "To meet the projected demand for cells, Tesla will continue to purchase battery cells produced in Panasonic's factories in Japan. Tesla and Panasonic will continue to discuss the details of implementation including sales, operations and investment."

Thanks to the Gigafactory deal, Tesla believes this facility will employ around 6,500 people by 2020. The company also reports that the facility will eventually produce 35 GWh of cells and 50 GWh of packs per year by 2020. The resulting cells, packs and modules produced by the facility will be used in the stationary storage market as well as electric vehicles from Tesla.

Overall, Tesla is looking to advance mass market electric vehicles. That means it needs a manufacturing plant to produce long range battery packs at a cost that continues to decline, and to meet the volumes required to advance the electric vehicle market. That's where Gigafactory comes into play.

"The Gigafactory will be managed by Tesla with Panasonic joining as the principle partner responsible for lithium-ion battery cells and occupying approximately half of the planned manufacturing space," the press release stated. "Key suppliers combined with Tesla's module and pack assembly will comprise the other half of this fully integrated industrial complex."

Tesla reports that it will continue to discuss with Panasonic the details of implementation including sales, operations and investment.

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  • -1 Hide
    borisof007 , July 31, 2014 11:22 AM
    I can't read "Gigafactory" without thinking about Trials Evolution because of that goddamn Gigatrack.
  • 3 Hide
    patrick47018 , July 31, 2014 12:38 PM
    This is 'Gigacool'!
  • 7 Hide
    akom , July 31, 2014 2:16 PM
    Great news, considering this is one of the steps Tesla needed to take to get the pricing down for their next planned car (formerly "Model E"), which they aim to get 200 miles per charge and cost around $40,000.
  • Display all 18 comments.
  • 1 Hide
    Bondfc11 , July 31, 2014 3:27 PM
    MOAR POWA NEEDED! Still in desperate need of power stations. Tesla's US-wide rollout is going painfully slow.
  • 3 Hide
    ickibar1234 , July 31, 2014 4:34 PM
    Hopefully by the end of 2015 their supercharger network will be more complete
  • 1 Hide
    icemunk , August 1, 2014 6:20 AM
    Giga-ty Giga-ty
  • 1 Hide
    Bondfc11 , August 1, 2014 11:43 AM
    Funny I got down-voted for saying they need more power stations. They do clearly. You cannot drive these things E-W, N-S without more stations. Plain and simple. Look at their maps and long haul driving is not possible. Love the car - hate the poor power distribution right now. In a year or two it will be nation-wide (they say), but for now and for my needs the Tesla is a fail (as is all electric vehicles - not speaking of hybrids - pure electric).
  • 0 Hide
    antilycus , August 1, 2014 1:35 PM
    Why pick an Asian run company when Johnson Controls has the capabilities and can keep jobs in the U.S. and pay taxes as a U.S. Company.
  • -2 Hide
    mrmez , August 1, 2014 9:20 PM
    If Tesla is the future of electric cars, bring it on.
    Pity the big manufacturers can't (won't) produce anything worth looking at.
  • -2 Hide
    izmanq , August 2, 2014 2:15 AM
    it's a big commitment to battery :| i'm not sure it's ok, what happens if in few year graphene super capacitor is ready :|
  • -1 Hide
    sykozis , August 3, 2014 3:14 PM
    Tesla is a joke. They produce electric vehicles to save the planet.....yet, the batteries eventually have to be disposed of and that in itself is a larger environmental hazard....
  • -1 Hide
    f-14 , August 3, 2014 3:48 PM
    i do not understand the need for batteries, there are capacitors that can store all this power needed and are lighter which will require less power to move a lighter mass than 1 ton battery packs and extremely fast to recharge, just plug in to house fold 120V 20mp, go to the bathroom take that full 30 seconds to wash your hands come back out and unplug ready to go fully charged again.

    there's the argument that capacitors don't hold their charge for very long, and yet it's proven that when replacing a car battery with a 6 pack capacitor pack, it will hold more than enough charge after a week of sitting, to start a car a few times easily. and it weighs less than a baseball which is a heck of alot less than the 40# battery
  • 0 Hide
    f-14 , August 3, 2014 3:51 PM
    Quote:
    just plug in to house fold 120V 20mp,


    house hold 120v 20amp large CAD render just finished and saved caused loss of letters, hahaha.
  • 0 Hide
    vir_cotto , August 4, 2014 7:32 AM
    Sweet, hopefully this along with the new solar powered roads electric will be good to go!
  • 0 Hide
    IndignantSkeptic , August 4, 2014 3:32 PM
    Good. Finally I will be able to go outside to get a breath of fresh air. Well, except for when stupid damn cigarette fanatics are around.
  • 0 Hide
    rexter , August 4, 2014 7:35 PM
    Quote:
    i do not understand the need for batteries, there are capacitors that can store all this power needed ..... it will hold more than enough charge after a week of sitting, to start a car a few times easily. and it weighs less than a baseball which is a heck of alot less than the 40# battery
    Capacitor have high current discharge but do not have high capacity charge. It won't hold enough energy to run your car radio for an hour for the same amount of size as with liquid cell. That is why you need to recharge it often.

    Quote:
    Why pick an Asian run company when Johnson Controls has the capabilities and can keep jobs in the U.S. and pay taxes as a U.S. Company.
    Panasonic is one of the company that have good technology of battery. Think LITHIUM VANADIUM.

    This is a good news for technology though. we will all benefit from it in the future.
  • 0 Hide
    ickibar1234 , August 13, 2014 8:38 PM
    Quote:
    Tesla is a joke. They produce electric vehicles to save the planet.....yet, the batteries eventually have to be disposed of and that in itself is a larger environmental hazard....


    You are wrong. I see this kind of post on most electric vehicle articles. Don't you know that at the end of the batteries useful life in an electric (or plugin hybrid / hybrid) car, that they can be used to buffer energy at wind farms or other uses in the grid?
    Finally when they really don't hold much of a charge at all, they are recycled. Shredded. Over 90% of the material is recyclable I believe, as are traditional lead acid car batteries.

    So, you could say all the lead acid batteries being recycled every year from traditional cars are an environmental disaster too? But it isn't.
  • 0 Hide
    ickibar1234 , August 13, 2014 8:40 PM
    Quote:
    i do not understand the need for batteries, there are capacitors that can store all this power needed and are lighter which will require less power to move a lighter mass than 1 ton battery packs and extremely fast to recharge, just plug in to house fold 120V 20mp, go to the bathroom take that full 30 seconds to wash your hands come back out and unplug ready to go fully charged again.

    there's the argument that capacitors don't hold their charge for very long, and yet it's proven that when replacing a car battery with a 6 pack capacitor pack, it will hold more than enough charge after a week of sitting, to start a car a few times easily. and it weighs less than a baseball which is a heck of alot less than the 40# battery


    A 120 Volt 20 Amp socket can only as much power (energy / heat) as a high wattage hair dryer. It doesn't matter what type of storage medium this energy is going into.
    Just like the theory of 5 minute rechargeable laptop batteries. You would need a huge AC adapter to convert all that AC power into DC power and the correct voltage. Not to mention probably a 240V outlet.
    With a car, you would need 480V and serious amperage to charge it up in 10 minutes or less.

    In the future, anything is possible.