The battery manufacturing unit of Panasonic Holdings said Wednesday it plans to quadruple its production of electric vehicle batteries by fiscal 2028 as it expects increasing demand from American EV manufacturing giant Tesla.
Panasonic Energy also said it is aiming for sales to hit ¥970 billion ($7.5 billion) by fiscal 2024, which ends in March 2025, up about ¥200 billion from fiscal 2021.
Panasonic Holdings considers its battery production business as an area of growth. Panasonic Energy plans to revamp its plant in Wakayama Prefecture to begin mass producing its next-generation 4680 battery cell in fiscal 2023 to be supplied to Tesla.
Kazuo Tadanobu, president of Panasonic Energy, said at an investor relations event that he hopes to contribute to the public becoming familiar with EVs by increasing production of the next generation batteries.
Panasonic is also eyeing increasing the production of batteries and the construction of new factories in North America.
The announcement by Panasonic comes at a time when global automakers are ramping up efforts to boost their development and production of electric vehicles and play their part in global efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Toyota Motor Corp., the world's No. 1 carmaker by volume, said in December it has raised its global EV sales target to 3.5 million EVs in 2030. Meanwhile, Volkswagen AG plans to manufacture up to 1 million EVs in Europe in 2030.