Panasonic revealed today that it had to reduce EV battery production at some of its plants in Japan to normalize inventories.
According to Reuters and Panasonic's third-quarter report, the production of automotive batteries in Japan was reduced by 60 percent compared to the second quarter of 2023.
That's a significant step back. It seems that the main reason behind this is the slower production and
sales of the Tesla Model S and Tesla Model X cars, which are equipped with Panasonic's 1865-type
cylindrical battery cells, imported from Japan. In Q3, Model S/Model X production decreased by 31 percent year-over-year to 13,688.
Sales also were down in Q3 (15,985 - down 14 percent), as well as in the Q1-Q3 period (45,905 - down 7 percent).