On February 28, Panasonic announced on Monday that it would start mass producing a new lithium-ion battery for Tesla at a factory in Japan by the end of March < p > the Japanese company released 4680 batteries (46mm in diameter and 80mm in height) in October 2021, which is about five times larger than the batteries currently supplied to Tesla, which means that the latter will be able to reduce production costs < p > although these batteries are mainly produced for Tesla, Panasonic executives previously disclosed that they do not rule out the possibility of supplying batteries to other companies. The new battery is expected to help increase the range of electric vehicles, which may help Tesla attract more customers < p > Panasonic said in a press release that it would build two new production lines to produce the new battery at its Wakayama plant in western Japan, but did not disclose how much it would spend on expansion < p > Japanese local media previously reported that Panasonic plans to invest 80 billion yen (about 692 million US dollars) in the plant. (small) < / P > < p >