Tesla and Panasonic freeze spending on $4.5B Gigafactory

OSAKA –Tesla and Panasonic are freezing plans to expand the capacity of their Gigafactory 1, the world’s largest EV battery plant, as concerns mount on Wall Street about weakening demand at Elon Musk’s car company. Panasonic’s Tesla EV battery business had operating losses exceeding 20 billion yen in the financial year that ended in March, up from a year earlier. In an April 4 report, Goldman Sachs analysts said, “Volume expectations for the company’s products in 2019 are too high, with consumer demand likely lower as subsidies phase out in the U.S.”
Tesla is scheduled to launch a small SUV, the Model Y, that is likely to use the same batteries as the Model 3.

Source: asia.nikkei.com