🔋Panasonic says gigafactory battery output to increase for Tesla Model 3.
Panasonic on Tuesday said output at the $5 billion battery gigafactory it runs with Tesla could soon increase as the causes of bottlenecks that have hobbled production are now understood.
Tesla Inc. earlier this month blamed manufacturing bottlenecks for limiting quarterly production of its mass-market Model 3 sedan to 260 vehicles rather than its 1,500 goal.
Panasonic CEO Kazuhiro Tsuga said at an earnings briefing that delays to the automation of the battery pack production line meant some stages had to be completed manually.
“This process [for battery packs] will be soon automated, and then the number of vehicles to be produced will rise sharply,” Tsuga said. He declined to comment to what extent Model 3 production would be behind its targeted schedule.