Panasonic Corp. is on the verge of turning a profit at the giant U.S. battery factory it operates with Tesla Inc., finally yielding returns for a company that has shelled out billions to make power cells for Elon Musk.
Panasonic already makes money on batteries for the Model S and Model X, which it produces domestically, President Kazuhiro Tsuga said in an interview. It's now ramping up output at the two-year-old Gigafactory in Nevada, which is dedicated to making batteries for the Model 3 but still losing money, he said.
"We will be in a position to deliver profits at a very early stage," Tsuga said, declining to specify a timeline. "There is no doubt about it, once we complete the current buildup."