Japan’s Panasonic Energy Co, a major Tesla supplier, said on Wednesday, July 13, it had selected Kansas as the site for a new battery plant that state officials said would create up to 4,000 jobs with investment of up to $4 billion.
Kansas officials said the job creation and investment targets they announced were pending final approval by Panasonic’s board. Panasonic is working to supply Tesla with a larger battery known as the 4680 model, starting with production in Japan in its next fiscal year. China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd has also been vetting sites for US production, people with knowledge of the matter have said.A Panasonic spokesperson told Reuters no decisions had been finalized on the new plant’s production capacity, investment amount and workforce size.
Kansas estimated $2.5 billion in annual economic activity from the plant that would offset the state’s largest development subsidy package.
Panasonic chose a non-woke state