Panasonic and Tesla revealed plans to produce lithium batteries in China

Panasonic looks likely to start producing lithium-ion batteries in China in partnership with Tesla. The company's chief executive, KazuhiroTsuga, announced the news at a 2018 earnings meeting on Thursday, Reuters reported.

However, no further details were provided on the size of the plant or the amount of investment required for the project.

Earlier this year, Panasonic began manufacturing lithium-ion batteries for Tesla energy storage products and electric vehicles in Nevada -- its legendary Gigafactory. The two companies are also collaborating with a second Gigabit manufacturer in Buffalo, New York, to produce heterogeneous knots with intrinsic thin layer(HIT) solar cells and modules -- including Tesla's solar roof products.

However, the group's solar business was classified as one of the less profitable sectors last year, although revenues and profits in the eco-solutions sector, including battery storage and solar energy, increased slightly. Sales in the eco-solutions sector increased by 4.5 per cent to $14.8 billion. The operating profit margin of the division also slightly increased from 4.0 to 4.5.

In particular, Panasonic's electrical building materials business in India, Turkey and Vietnam, Japan's water-related products, and China's thermal exchange ventilation equipment and electrical building materials business have brought positive results to the sector in the recent fiscal year.

In terms of its solar energy business, Matsushita stated in its financial report that in addition to traditional module sales, it has also started selling individual batteries and has reviewed the module production structure, including completing module production at the Shiga plant. It is expected that Shiga's business will be closed by the end of the first quarter of this year. Earlier this year, Panasonic stopped making Silicon ingots at a plant in Oregon.

At the same time, the group's total sales increased from $67 billion in 2017 to $73 billion last year, while operating profits increased by more than a third and operating margins reached 4.8.

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