Making batteries for electric vehicles is a painstaking job. More Americans will do so in the coming years, thanks to federal incentives that are attracting companies to establish EV battery manufacturing in the US rather than Asia.
At Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada, where production began in 2016, battery cell partner Panasonic has for years employed thousands of workers in the massive factory operation – and learned some important lessons along the way.
Among them: American workers’ hands are sometimes too large to efficiently operate machines made in Asia.
“It seems like a joke, but problems like this are often encountered at an early stage,” Yasuaki Takamoto, who heads Panasonic’s EV battery business, told The Wall Street Journal.
Unexpected difficulties are also likely to arise at similar plants planned across the US by automakers and their battery partners. Last month, Honda and LG announced a joint venture to build the facility in Ohio. In December, Hyundai and SK announced the same bond in Georgia. Panasonic itself started building another EV battery plant in Kansas in November. Vietnam’s Vinfast will manufacture EV and vehicle batteries in North Carolina. GM and LG are developing new EV battery factories, with one already operating in Ohio. BMW has a deal with Japan’s Envision AESC to supply battery cells near its South Carolina plant, where it will invest $1 billion to make EVs.
For Panasonic, shifting production of lithium-ion batteries from East Asia—where they are traditionally made—to North America presents another challenge, Journal reported there. For starters, even the slightest exposure to moisture can mean batches of product need to be thrown out, so properly training workers is essential. And special equipment used in Asia may not pass muster in the US, which has different safety standards and operating conditions.
Such a problem, Takamoto said Journal, It means that the production boost takes one or two more years from the expected Japanese company. The time it takes to train workers is also slowing GM-LG’s battery plant in Ohio, GM CEO Mary Barra said in October.
Another challenge is to create an enormous production facility yourself, the Journal reported. With the level of outsourcing that has occurred in America over the past decade, not many craftsmen have the relevant new experience to build the large manufacturing facilities needed by EV battery manufacturers.
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