Panasonic withdraws from lead-acid battery business and will focus on automotive lithium battery production

Thank you, Mr. Air, a netizen of CTOnews.com, for your clue delivery! CTOnews.com, June 1, according to the Nikkei Chinese website, Panasonic Holdings announced on May 31 that Panasonic Energy, which is engaged in battery business, has officially withdrawn from the lead battery production business and will concentrate its operating resources on lithium battery production for pure electric vehicles, which Panasonic Holdings regards as the most important investment area.

At present, Panasonic's only company in the world that produces lead-acid batteries is Panasonic Battery (Shenyang) Co., Ltd. (PSBS), which officially stopped production on May 31. Previously, it mainly produced industrial lead-acid batteries for emergency power supplies in buildings. It is expected that PSBS will enter the liquidation process in the future.

Panasonic agreed in 2015 with GS YUASA, a big battery company, to transfer Panasonic's lead-acid battery business, but PSBS and the Thai factory are not in the deal. The Thai factory closed production of lead-acid batteries as early as March this year.

According to CTOnews.com, Panasonic will spend 700 billion yen (currently about 35.7 billion yuan) on equipment investment this year, which is almost equivalent to Panasonic's total profits in the past three years. More than half of the money will be invested in the vehicle battery business, which aims to increase battery capacity by 60% within a year. The investment will focus on the de Soto superbattery factory in Kansas, which will mainly supply 2170 batteries to Tesla.