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Featured Panasonic Building the World's Largest EV Battery Plant in Kansas

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by drash, Jul 14, 2022.

  1. drash

    drash Senior Member

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  2. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    I'll believe it when I see it... These deals often fallen apart as quickly as they come together. The corporations are constantly trying to get ridiculous tax breaks that can make a city go broke and once the city adds up the numbers the deal falls through.
     
  3. 3PriusMike

    3PriusMike Prius owner since 2000, Tesla M3 2018

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    I tend to think it will go through. There is no doubt that there will be great demand in the future for batteries. And you have to build capacity a year or two in advance in order to be able to get the contract for a new production line

    Mike
     
  4. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Alot more than a year or two... More like 10 years in advance... This is precisely why Tesla's market value has been so high in recent years relative to all other major auto makers.

    For a long time automakers thought the fix was in and they had to maintain their relationships with the fossil fool industry because they were convinced that Tesla was going to be destroyed by everything the oil companies promised to destroy other auto makers with over the decades if they shifted to electric cars.

    Then big oil lost and Tesla won and it's been a mad scramble among automakers to do a decade of electric car innovations in just a few years. Meanwhile more than 50% of new car buyers are waiting for a good price on an electric car and some major automakers are going to not have enough funding to cross the finish line and will shut down.
     
  5. 3PriusMike

    3PriusMike Prius owner since 2000, Tesla M3 2018

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    Tesla and Panasonic agreed in 2014/2015 that Panasonic would build batteries for the Model 3. Limited production started in 2016 and they were in production in 2017.

    Mike
     
  6. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Yes, but Tesla started planning the Giga factory in 2013 after 5 years of production made them realize mass-production of batteries from a dedicated factory so huge that it could speed up manufacturing and lower cost was essential to making an affordable mass-produced electric car.

    Compare that to other major car makers who are barely getting started in mass production of EVs.
     
  7. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    3 years are what is needed before volume production. I would expect volume in 2025 if Panasonic is moving fast.
     
  8. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Companies like VW have shown it's way harder and takes way longer than just a few years to retool all your factories to build electric cars. And Tesla had a distinct advantage in that they 1) didn't have to re-tool, they simply had to build brand new factories, 2) they were able to bring one of the world's largest battery makers into their own factory because they proved to Panasonic that they had a better manufacturing strategy that was more than just for vehicles, but also for disrupting the power grid with giga packs that are replacing power plants simply by being able to store electricity during off peak hours.
     
  9. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    More than that, they can provide electric buffering within sub-seconds of a grid problem. That speed was so fast the Australians at first had no way to measure (and pay) for every grid incident.

    Bob Wilson
     
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  10. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Yep... Then you add in a new decentralised grid where everyone's roof is generating power and storing them in power walls and vehicles with all the extra going to the nearest giga back and perhaps you might eventually one day have enough power to defeat the fossil fool monsters that run most of the major militaries for their own advantage in ways that set the planet on fire...
     
  11. douglasjre

    douglasjre Senior Member

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  12. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    These plants are highly automated, which means unit labor cost is fairly low. With the new US plug-in incentives, north American production of batteries will get a tax credit far exceeding the labor cost on a battery pack.

    Chinese battery plants for Chinese made plug-ins, and North American plants for North American made plug ins just makes sense given the 2 governments incentive structure. I don't think there is any Chinese prison labor in the chinese produced packs, but perhaps you could share a link.
     
  13. douglasjre

    douglasjre Senior Member

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  14. douglasjre

    douglasjre Senior Member

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  15. douglasjre

    douglasjre Senior Member

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  16. douglasjre

    douglasjre Senior Member

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    If you're an engineer or some other valuable person in China you think the government is going to let you go on vacation to the US, lmao
     
  17. 3PriusMike

    3PriusMike Prius owner since 2000, Tesla M3 2018

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    Aren't all of the videos you posted the answer to your question? You build things outside of China in order to strengthen the economies of countries that act more inline with your values...as much as possible.

    Mike
     
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