Tesla (TSLA) announces a new battery cell deal with Panasonic

Tesla (TSLA) has announced a new battery cell deal with Panasonic through an SEC filing today.
 
It’s the latest of many recent moves from Tesla in an attempt to secure a large battery cell supply to support its ambitious expansion goals.
 
Early this morning, Tesla released a new SEC filing confirming that they signed a new “2021 Pricing Agreement” with Panasonic last week:
 
On December 29, 2020, Tesla, Inc. and Tesla Motors Netherlands B.V. (together, “Tesla”) and Panasonic Corporation of North America and Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. (together, “Panasonic”) entered into a 2021 Pricing Agreement (Japan Cells) (the “Agreement”), effective as of October 1, 2020 until March 31, 2022, relating to the supply by Panasonic of lithium-ion battery cells manufactured by Panasonic in Japan. The Agreement is subject to the Supply Agreement between Tesla and Panasonic (and/or their respective affiliates) dated October 5, 2011, as amended, and sets forth, among other things, specific terms with respect to pricing, production capacity commitments, purchase volume commitments and planned investments over the term of the Agreement.
 
The details are scarce, but the disclosure does note that the deal is for battery cells coming from Japan.
 
Historically, the cells that Panasonic has been supplying Tesla with from Japan have been for the Model S and Model X programs.
 
Recently, Panasonic disclosed that they were starting production of new battery cells with better performance for Tesla.

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