Tesla battery supplier Panasonic is being pushed to accelerate supplies of its American-made products, according to the Japanese company’s chief executive, in a sign that US protectionist measures have made batteries manufactured by its Chinese rivals less competitive.
Yuki Kusumi said in an interview in Tokyo with foreign media that its main customer — widely understood to be Tesla — was encouraging a quicker start to production at its new Kansas plant, most likely because Chinese batteries were less profitable to bring into the US due to a combination of subsidies and tariffs.
“As we’ve been told by our customer to get Kansas moving quickly, we’re hurrying to do so,” Kusumi said. He conjectured that the customer was thinking that replacing Chinese batteries with US-made Panasonic ones would help its electric vehicles sold in the US qualify for significant consumer tax credits.