Panasonic offloads its entire stake in Tesla

Panasonic has sold all its stakes in Tesla back in March, according to Nikkei.

Nikkei said Panasonic likely secured 400 billion yen from the sales.

The Japanese firm was the first supplier of cylinder batteries for electric vehicles to Tesla.

The company will continue supplying its batteries to the US car firm, a Panasonic spokesperson told Nikkei.

Panasonic CEO Yuki Kusumi told Bloomberg earlier this year that the company was building a production line to test 4680 batteries and will supply them to Tesla and other electric car manufacturers.

Tesla last year announced that it was developing its own 4680 batteries. It is reportedly planning to collaborate with LG Energy Solution to manufacture them at Germany.

According to SNE Research, from January to April this year, Panasonic controlled a 14.7% market share in electric car batteries, ranking third globally.