Tesla Motors, Elon Musk’s company, has come out saying that it wishes to collaborate with the longstanding battery partner, Panasonic Corp, so that they can manufacture solar cells and panels at one of their New York factories.
The agreement which the two firms have made, a non binding letter of intent at the moment, is hinged on the shareholder’s approval at the moment of the acquisition of the SolarCity Corporation. Tesla issued a statement explaining their intentions late on Sunday. The financial terms for the non binding agreement were jot disclosed but various sources which are in New York said that the production of the solar cell batteries would be done at a factory which is owned by SolarCity in Buffalo.
The Japanese based firm, Panasonic, is actually expected to start production at their Buffalo factory from 2017, and Tesla is though to be a long term commitment to the production of the cells. Tesla noted that they would use the cells and the modules they had in a solar energy system which would work together with the energy storage products of the Powerwall and the Powerpack batteries of Tesla.
Tesla is expected to buy the SolarCity Company soon. The CEO for Tesla, Elon Musk is said to be the biggest shareholder in SolarCity and his cousins are the ones who run things over at the company, therefore their transition would be seamless and would be part of a clean energy consumer brand. Last year, SolarCity announced that they were going to manufacture a new form of the solar panel at the plant which they would then be able to use to transform sunlight into electricity.
Over $5 billion was pledged over by SolarCity over 10 years so that they could improve the RiverBend factory in New York and they would be able to get over $750 million in tax breaks and various other investments which would be made by the state.
A Panasonic spokeswoman declined to comment on the deal, and SolarCity and Tesla were not immediately available for comment.
