In an effort to survive in a television market increasingly dominated by LCD displays, Japanese electronics manufacturer Panasonic announced that it is ending its plasma display panels business and closing down the factories that handle their production this December.
Panasonic has made plasma televisions since 2000. But the shift toward LCD for large-sized displays as well as small and medium-sized ones, along with the 2008 economic crisis, has made the business unsustainable. Out of the three factories handling plasma production, Amagasaki P3 has already stopped, P5 has been suspended, and P4 will finish its run by next March.
It's not all bad news in the world of Panasonic though. The corporation also recently announced that it is continuing its partnership with Elon Musk and Tesla Motors to enhance its supply of new lithium-ion batteries for electric cars. According to ValueWalk, the deal is an essential step in Tesla's future plans to "increase production of its current and future vehicles," including the Model S and the upcoming Model X.
Over the past two years, Panasonic has already provided Tesla with about 200 million cells, but this new deal ups the quota to 2 billion cells by 2017. However, even with this increase, Tesla is still reaching out to new partners for an additional, perhaps less flammable, battery supply. The report mentions a recent deal with Samsung, as well as potential talks with LG.
The news comes the same day that Tesla opened its West Coast Supercharger Corridor, a network of car-charging stations that will allow drivers to travel for free between San Diego, California and Vancouver, British Columbia.
Stations are located along U.S. Highway 101 and Interstate 5, and Tesla said that more than 99 percent of Californians and 87 percent of Oregon and Washington owners are now within 200 miles of a Supercharger.
Back in May, Tesla pledged to open several new fast-charging stations in the U.S. and Canada by the end of June and plans to connect all of North America within a year.
To read what it's like to get behind the wheel of a Model S, check out 10 Thrilling Minutes in Tesla's Model S.