4680 Battery | Panasonic Prepares for Mass Production of 4680 Cells

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4680 Battery | Panasonic Prepares for Mass Production of 4680 Cells

Date：2024-09-10

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Keyword tags： 4680 Battery Cylindrical

On September 9th, Panasonic Energy announced that it has completed preparations for the mass production of its 4680 cylindrical automotive lithium-ion batteries, indicating a significant breakthrough in the industry that has been long anticipated.

The company has revamped its Wakayama factory in western Japan to serve as the primary production facility for the 4680 batteries. Utilizing renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power, the factory aims to achieve near-zero carbon emissions. The revamped Wakayama factory will act as the mother plant for Panasonic's 4680 battery production and will also serve as a demonstration hub for new products and manufacturing methods, enhancing the company's product quality and competitiveness. The company plans to promote the products and processes from this factory to its other global facilities. An opening ceremony was held on the same day, and mass production of the 4680 batteries will commence after the final evaluation.

Panasonic anticipates that by March 2025, the Wakayama factory will employ approximately 400 staff members in the development and production of next-generation batteries.

The company has stated that it has sent samples of the 4680 batteries to some of its automotive manufacturer clients and intends to start production for clients after receiving approval.

Panasonic's key customer, Tesla, has been continuously developing and producing the 4680 batteries to reduce battery costs. In November of last year, Tesla also began delivering the Cybertruck, which uses Tesla's self-produced 4680 batteries. In June of this year, Tesla announced that its Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, had produced 50 million 4680 large cylindrical batteries. Combining this with the information that Tesla produced its 10 millionth 4680 cell core in June 2023, Tesla has produced approximately 40 million 4680 cell cores within 12 months.

Recently, it has been reported that Tesla is expanding its Gigafactory Nevada to add dedicated production facilities for the Semi and 4680 batteries.

However, during Tesla's second-quarter investor meeting in June, it was mentioned that the price of Tesla's own 4680 batteries is still higher than that of batteries from suppliers. This does not rule out the possibility of Tesla procuring 4680 batteries from external suppliers while also producing its own.

Due to their higher energy density, faster charging, greater safety, and lower production costs after mass production, many domestic and international mainstream car manufacturers, including BMW, General Motors, Volvo, Voyah, JAC, Porsche, and NIO, have publicly announced or are considering using large cylindrical batteries.

Recently, Panasonic Energy also announced that it will build a battery factory in Gunma Prefecture, north of Tokyo, to supply cylindrical batteries to Subaru from the fiscal year 2028. Additionally, Panasonic will start supplying cylindrical batteries to Subaru from its Osaka factory from the fiscal year 2027.

Apart from Subaru, Panasonic will also supply power batteries to Mazda from the fiscal year 2027 through its Suminoe and Kaizuka factories in Osaka, which currently produce 2170 and 1860 cylindrical batteries.

Beyond its home market in Japan, Panasonic is currently constructing its second battery factory in the United States in Kansas, with plans to start production next year. Another Panasonic battery factory is located in Nevada.

In June, industry insiders revealed that LG Energy Solution plans to start trial production of 4680 batteries at its Ochang factory in South Korea before August and intends to begin trial production of 4680 large cylindrical batteries at its Arizona factory from the end of 2025.

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