Oklahoma leaders could only watch with envy Monday (if they were watching) as the $4 billion Panasonic electric vehicle battery plant was formally opened with a grand ceremony in the Kansas City suburb of DeSoto, Kansas.
Recall, Oklahoma was a finalist when Panasonic chose Kansas to locate the $4 billion, 4.7 million-square-foot-plant where an estimated 4,000 people will work producing EV batteries. The plant’s operations actually started a week ago and it will take another month before full capacity is achieved.
About 1,100 workers are already employed there, producing nearly 50,000 battery cells every day or at the rate of one every 70 seconds. However, as we reported earlier, international reports indicate that falling Tesla sales will result in a delay before Panasonic’s new plant reaches full capacity.
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