Panasonic announced a 15% cut in its battery division's full-year profit forecast as demand for electric vehicles slows in North America.

CTOnews.com, October 30 (Xinhua) during a period of rapid development of the world's largest battery companies, Panasonic's battery business seems to be at a standstill, and its customers are still limited to a small number of automobile companies such as Tesla and Toyota, so they are extremely vulnerable to these two customers.

Panasonic announced on Monday that it cut its operating profit forecast for the fiscal year ending next April by 15% from 135 billion yen to 115 billion yen (currently about 5.635 billion yuan) in its energy division, which makes batteries for Tesla and other automakers, as demand for high-end electric cars in North America is slowing.

Panasonic made a record net profit of Y100m (CTOnews.com Note: currently about Rmb4.9 million) in the six months to September, thanks to huge subsidies for its electric car battery business in the US, highlighting its reliance on customers such as North America and Tesla.

Although its profits rose 169 per cent from the previous year, analysts warned that the Japanese company's investment and partnerships might not be fast enough to fend off competitors.

It is understood that in the field of new energy vehicles, Panasonic has eight power battery production bases around the world, five of which are in Japan and three overseas.

Panasonic's chief technology officer, Chuichiro Watanabe, also said Panasonic needs to build about four new plants by fiscal year 2030 to meet the growing demand for electric vehicle batteries. Panasonic currently supplies batteries to the US electric car Tesla and is also in talks with Mazda. Panasonic plans to quadruple car battery capacity to 200GWh by fiscal year 2030 compared with fiscal year 2022.