Panasonic plans to build a new battery plant in Kansas, US, with the goal of producing batteries for Tesla, according to a report from Nikkei Asia on Wednesday.

Invested Panasonic Formerly a joint venture battery plant with Tesla in Nevada, called the Gigafactory, the facility has been slow to turn a profit due to high defect rates and slower-than-expected production, but it should become profitable in 2021.

Tesla announced that it will deliver 936,000 vehicles annually in 2021, an 87 percent increase over 2020, and has been driven up by inflation in the cost of battery materials, increased production of electric cars, and the current pandemic and Russian-Ukrainian supply chain issues. War.

The new Panasonic plant is expected to employ around 4,000 people.

Until now, Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company has largely relied on Panasonic and other vendors, including CATL in China, to produce batteries and energy storage systems for homes and networks.

Panasonic is not alone in expanding its investment in battery manufacturing in the US. Earlier this year, General Motors and LG Energy announced plans to invest more than $2 billion in a new battery plant in Michigan.

Stellandis and Jeep maker Samsung are investing about $2.5 billion in a battery plant in Kokomo, with the goal of helping the automaker transition to electric vehicles.

According to research by Canalys, global sales of battery electric vehicles will reach 4.5 million units in 2021, accounting for about 69% of all electric vehicle sales, including plug-in hybrids.