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"We
will do our best to move up the schedule if requested," Yoshio
Ito, head of Panasonic's automotive and industrial systems (AIS)
division, told reporters at a briefing on Friday.
Panasonic plans to contribute $1.6 billion to Tesla's $5 billion
"Gigafactory" in phases over the next few years. Production of
the advanced car batteries is scheduled to start later this
year.
A faster ramp-up of the battery plant would be crucial as Tesla
has said it would respond to brisk demand for the Model 3 by
tooling up its factories to build 500,000 vehicles a year in
2018, two years earlier than planned.
Supplier executives and industry consultants have told Reuters
that the acceleration in the plans to move up the launch of
high-volume production of the Model 3 to 2018 would be difficult
to achieve and potentially costly.
At the briefing, Ito declined to comment on whether Tesla's
target is achievable. "We just don't want to be a bottleneck,"
he said.
Asked about risks of being heavily involved in Tesla's
aggressive production plans, Ito said Panasonic "hopes to play a
balancing act" of ensuring investment returns and filling
responsibilities as a supplier.
Panasonic's partnership with Tesla is part of the Japanese
company's effort to withdraw from low-margin consumer
electronics products like smartphones to focus more on
automotive components and other businesses targeting corporate
clients.
Panasonic is aiming to nearly double its automotive business
revenue to 2 trillion yen ($18.2 billion) over the next three
years, representing roughly 20 percent of overall sales.
To expand its presence in the auto industry, the company bought
49 percent of Spanish auto-parts maker Ficosa International SA [FICOS.UL]
last year.
Ito said Panasonic could spend 300 billion yen to 400 billion
yen to purchase companies with technologies that it does not
possess in the automotive field.
"There are some possible deals on the table," he said.
($1 = 110.2200 yen)
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and
Christopher Cushing)
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