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Panasonic Energy, a major supplier of electric batteries to Tesla, wants to end its dependence on electric battery supply from China for US production.
Allan Swan, the company’s President for North America, emphasized that eliminating any dependence is the company’s “No. 1 objective”, he told Reuters.
“We do have some Chinese supply but we don’t have a lot… And we have plans not to have some, as we go forward, and that has accelerated”
— Allan Swan, President for North America, Panasonic Energy
The statement comes ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration and plan to raise trade tariffs. On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to increase tariffs from 10-20%, and as high as 60%-100% on imports from China.
In the US, Panasonic Energy operates a factory in Nevada and plans to open a second plant in Kansas in 2025.
However, the challenge for Panasonic Energy and other companies that we expect to make similar announcements over the next year, will be in divesting away from the China — especially over dependence on critical materials.
Allan Swan stated that the company is working rapidly to reduce this dependency with a “three-pronged attack”, including:
- signing up more US suppliers
- assisting Japanese and Korean suppliers to set up operations in the US
- and accessing existing suppliers already planning US expansions
Our analysis on what Trump and his proposed tariffs mean for mining and critical mineral supply chains:
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