After flailing through the 2000s as a consumer electronics giant and missing out on the mobile boom, Panasonic found itself a new life with electric cars taking off when Elon Musk and Tesla made the bold and audacious bet on the industry in the mid-2000s. Now, to complete its reinvention it has announced an investment of $4.9 billion which is for batteries and supply chain software as this industry becomes central to Panasonic.
Panasonic is not betting the farm on electric cars as a big chunk of this investment is also on hydrogen fuel cell-based solutions. Panasonic is targeting an overall operating revenue of $12.2 billion in the next three years.
Panasonic is a 104-year-old company that used to be one of the top consumer electronics players alongside the likes of Sony but in the 2000s its star started to fade. Its new CEO Yuki Kusuma has pivoted Panasonic towards electric car batteries. In fact, he backed the project behind Tesla’s tab-less battery cells that are now being deployed by the world’s most valuable automaker.
It is in talks for a site for manufacturing these batteries in the US and chances are the multi-billion dollar plant. While doing this, it is also doubling down on supply chain software and battery management tools. It acquired Blue Yonder in 2021 for $7.1 billion which will now be deeply embedded in Panasonic’s hardware.