Panasonic has been sluggish to construct scale, as Musk complained about on “Battery Day,” which is why he desires Tesla to construct its personal. However Panasonic says it simply desires its security so as. “The identical knowhow that lets Panasonic produce 2.5 billion cells a yr with out main issues of safety provides it a bonus in producing the larger cells,” Takamoto mentioned.

Tesla is reportedly speaking to different battery makers, and Panasonic has mentioned it’s going to promote the batteries to different automakers.

At a European battery convention in November Musk mentioned that the corporate has produced the brand new battery at a “bench-top” degree, and was aiming at “pilot-plant degree” subsequent. However he did concede that scaling up the manufacturing course of is a a lot larger step.

That is all excellent news, cheaper battery methods and fewer elements equals cheaper EVs. It’s going to most likely nonetheless be a couple of years earlier than we see these new cells, although.