By Morgan Chilson
TOPEKA — Panasonic’s Kansas electric vehicle battery plant will convert part of its operations to build batteries for data centers, company officials announced.
Panasonic leaders announced the company’s shift to focus on developing devices and infrastructure equipment for artificial intelligence uses and data centers at a June 8 investors day presentation.
Yuki Kusumi, CEO of Panasonic Holdings, said the company will invest about $3 billion between fiscal years 2027 and 2029 to advance its work on devices and systems that support AI, including enhancing production capacity.
Panasonic opened its 4.7 million-square foot plant in De Soto in July, but ramping to full capacity was delayed by Trump administration changes in support for green energy and electric vehicles.
The project received nearly $830 million in tax credits from the state of Kansas.
The De Soto plant was projected to have 4,000 employees at full capacity. A Panasonic representative said in an email to the Kansas Reflector this week that it currently employs 1,800 people and four production lines are in operation. Construction began on the plant’s second wing, which is expected to be in operation by 2027.
“The ramp up for EV battery cell production at the Kansas facility will continue to be determined by customer demand,” the representative said. “There is no new information to share from what has previously been reported about Panasonic’s hiring projections.”
Kazuo Tadanobu, president and CEO of Panasonic Energy, said at the investment event that the company has focused on green and digital domains, evolving its portfolio in response to “major market changes in automotive and data centers.”
“Although the in-vehicle business has not reached the growth level we initially expected in the industry and consumer business, we have captured the rapidly expanding demand for data centers driven by Gen AI and achieved significant growth,” he said.
Building on those two industries, the data center business will be the company’s growth driver, moving projected Panasonic sales from nearly $2 billion in fiscal year 2026 to a target of $6.2 billion in fiscal year 2029, Tadanobu said.
He said the company plans to invest $2.2 billion in achieving its goals over the next three years, including investments in infrastructure at the De Soto plant.
“Major investments include repurposing production lines in Japan, from in-vehicle to data center applications, ramping up the Kansas factory and converting it for data center applications, and expanding module plans in Mexico,” Tadanobu said.
The company plans to speed up the establishment of a North American-based supply chain to meet demand, partly by using existing facilities, he said.
“The key to flexibility is expanding capacity in North America, where customer demand is highest, and strengthening local procurement of power components,” Tadanobu said.
Panasonic will increase cell production capacity in Japan and is preparing cell production for data centers at the Kansas facility, with mass production beginning in fiscal year 2029, he said.
In the statement to Kansas Reflector, a Panasonic representative said the company planned for its Kansas facility to be “agile and responsive to the market and our diverse customers’ needs.”
“Panasonic Energy is in the beginning stages of planning its data center battery cell production in Kansas,” the statement said. “It is part of a $2.18 billion-dollar global investment, and the first data center battery cells are anticipated to be produced in mid to late 2028 or early 2029. EV battery cell production will continue at the Kansas facility.”
