Note: Corrects June 8 item in second bullet to say mass production at Panasonic Energy’s third plant in Mexico is set to start in FY2027, not FY2028.
Panasonic Holdings announced on Monday that it expects to start mass production of battery cells intended for data centre applications at a plant in Kansas during its financial year 2028, which concludes in March 2029.
The company laid out the allocation of a previously announced 500 billion yen investment aimed at AI infrastructure for the three-year span covering fiscal 2026 through fiscal 2028. Of that total, about 350 billion yen will be assigned to its Energy unit, the division that supplies battery products to Tesla, while the remaining 150 billion yen is earmarked for the Industry segment.
Separately, Panasonic Energy said it will bring a third manufacturing site in Mexico online, with mass production slated for the fiscal year 2027. Company management corrected an earlier item to clarify that the Mexico plant’s mass-production start date is FY2027.
Kazuo Tadanobu, CEO of Panasonic Energy, stated that the unit has set a sales target of 950 billion yen for data centre-related energy storage systems in the 2028 financial year. He characterized that figure as a "minimum commitment" and said the business would aim to raise sales beyond 1 trillion yen.
The company provided a currency reference for readers: $1 equals 160.1900 yen.
Contextual details released alongside the production and investment plans underline Panasonic’s focus on scaling energy storage solutions tied to data centre demand and AI infrastructure spending. The reallocation of the 500 billion yen package channels a substantial share of that capital into the Energy unit, aligning investment with the unit’s production and sales targets.
Operationally, the timetable points to sequential capacity additions across regions - including the U.S. Kansas facility and the Mexico plant - as the company pursues higher sales for data centre-related systems.
Panasonic’s public statements emphasize the sales goal for FY2028 as a baseline that the business intends to exceed, but provide no further details on intermediate milestones or the specific ramp profile for the new facilities.