Panasonic picks Kansas for Tesla EV battery plant, state puts investment at $4 billion

Japan’s Panasonic Energy Co, a major Tesla Inc supplier, said on Wednesday it had selected Kansas as the site for a new battery plant that state officials said would create up to 4,000 jobs with investment of up to $4 billion.
The move comes as Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the electric vehicle (EV) maker faced challenges ramping up production of its in-house batteries, contributing to limited auto output. He described new Tesla factories in Texas and Berlin as “gigantic money furnaces” which are losing billions of dollars.
The decision by Panasonic Energy, a unit of tech conglomerate Panasonic Holdings Corp, to pick Kansas over Oklahoma for the plant comes after Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly pushed the state legislature to approve an incentive package of up to $1 billion earlier this year.