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Panasonic Expects to Double Its Battery Sales in Three Years Thanks to Model 3

Besides my name and, most of the times, where I am, there is one more thing I could probably tell you if you woke me from the deepest slumber: the number of Tesla Model 3 reservations made to date.
Tesla Model 3 1 photo
Photo: Tesla Motors
"Over 373,000" is the official figure communicated by Tesla, and it must be killing them that they've come so close to 400,000 but couldn't go beyond. "Over 400,000" would have sounded so much better. But it's not as if Tesla isn't absolutely ecstatic over reception its smaller sedan had, considering before the event in March it was expecting half that.

Another company that's looking at this "over 373,000" figure with hungry eyes is Panasonic. The Japanese tech giant is Tesla's official partner in manufacturing the battery cells that will go into its new car, and also one of the reasons the Gigafactory project came to be. And since everything's going so well, Panasonic also announced it would be investing a further $1.6 billion into Tesla's plant to meet the surprisingly high demand.

Automotive News reports that a company official estimates a growth to $4 billion for Panasonic's annual automobile battery sales by March 2019, which is more than double what the Japanese company managed to sell in the fiscal year that ended March 2016.

Elon Musk has already announced plans of ramping up production of the Model 3, moving forward the 500,000 units a year goal by two years - from 2020 to 2018. The demand is expected to grow, and the rate at which Panasonic will manage to build its battery cells at the Gigafactory will be crucial. Tesla has faced issues with suppliers before that have slowed down the market introduction of the Model X, but since it will all be happening in-house, it's unlikely anything similar will happen again. At least not as far as batteries are concerned.

In fact, during one of his conference calls, Elon Musk even used a very eloquent comparison to describe Panasonic's manufacturing process at the Gigafactory. He said that “the exit rate of [battery] cells from Gigafactory will be faster than bullets from a machine gun.” Say hello to Elon Musk's little friend.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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