BMW and Stellantis Court Panasonic for new US Battery Plants
Electronics giant Panasonic is being courted by both Stellantis and BMW to build them BEV battery plants in North America, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Both global automakers are investing billions of dollars to setup battery plants for electric vehicles as much to benefit from the US government’s Inflation Reduction Act as to meet demand for zero emissions transport. The Act allows for BEVs built from domestically sourced parts to enjoy generous grants to make them more affordable versus ICE powered alternatives.
Stellantis, which has already announced two automotive battery plants in North America, one with LG in Canada and another in Indiana with Samsung, is now said to be discussing with Panasonic as a possible partner for the third factory. Neither automaker would comment on the newspaper report.
However, a Panasonic spokesman told Reuters: “We are examining various growth strategies for our automotive battery business but there is no further information that we can share at the moment aside from what we have already announced.”
— Paul Myles is a seasoned automotive journalist based in Europe. Follow him on Twitter @Paulmyles_
