Increasing production demands from Tesla were likely a factor in the decision for a new U.S. plant, along with Panasonic’s progress on the new technology. Prototypes started to ship in May.
Panasonic’s first U.S. plant in Nevada, the Gigafactory 1, is jointly operated with Tesla. The Japanese company invested roughly 200 billion yen in that facility, which only began turning a profit in the year ended March 2021 as high failure rates kept mass production from getting off the ground.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Automobiles/Panasonic-to-bu…
The article does not specify the location of the plant in Kansas.
Kansas is a mostly rural state. Smaller family size and farm mechanization has caused many farm towns to shrink. That implies reduced manpower for the new Panasonic plant.
Most likely location is Wichita. It had a large Boeing plant built during World War II when people worried that munitions plants near the oceans were vulnerable to attack.
Wichita population is put at 535K and growing.
I did quick web search and found this article
https://www.kansascity.com/news/business/development/article…
Panasonic chooses Kansas for $4 billion mega battery factory, Asian media reports
Panasonic plans to build a $4 billion, 4,000-employee factory in Kansas to make batteries for the rapidly growing electric vehicle market, Asian media reported Wednesday. Nikkei Asia reported that the Japanese electronics giant is planning to invest several billion dollars for an electric vehicle battery factory in Kansas. Gov. Laura Kelly scheduled a “special event” at 5 p.m. Wednesday in Topeka.
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Panasonic will build its sprawling new factory just south of De Soto at the Sunflower Army Ammunition site. The U.S. Army has been working for years to clean up the World War II-era site, believed to be the largest undeveloped site in the Kansas City metro area.
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