River Davis of The Wall Street Journal is reporting that site conditions and potential subsidies coupled with uncertainty in EV business growth caused Panasonic to back off building a multibillion-dollar EV battery factory in OK. He writes:
Tesla supplier Panasonic said Wednesday that it has decided against building a multibillion-dollar electric vehicle battery factory in Oklahoma.Panasonic already has an EV battery plant under construction in Kansas and had been eyeing Oklahoma as a potential additional location. The Japanese company already operates a joint-venture EV battery plant with Tesla in Nevada.
In April, Panasonic entered into a formal agreement with the state of Oklahoma to explore building a factory in the state. Panasonic said Wednesday that it has decided not to move forward with the plan. It cited “a wide range of factors” without naming any.
People involved in talks with the state of Oklahoma said there were differences over site conditions and potential subsidies. […]
The EV business in the U.S. is facing uncertainty as growth in demand has been slower than some companies expected. Some companies are moving more slowly with their expansion plans, including General Motors, which is delaying the opening of a large electric-pickup-truck factory in Michigan.
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