(Reuters) – The outgoing CEO of Panasonic Corp, Kazuhiro Tsuga, has said the company should reduce its strong reliance on Tesla Inc. by making batteries more compatible with electric vehicles from other global automakers, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
“At some point, we need to follow our one-legged approach of relying only on Tesla,” Tsuga, who will retire as chief executive after April 1 after nine years, told the newspaper.
“We are entering a different phase and we need to keep an eye on manufacturers other than Tesla.”
The Japanese conglomerate announced in November that Tsuga would retire after nine years at the helm in April and that Yuki Kusumi, the head of his car business, would take over.
Led by Tsuga, Panasonic has shifted its focus from low-margin consumer electronics to batteries, factory machines and components. The company said last month that it expects its Tesla-supplied batteries to be profitable in the financial year.
Panasonic partnered with Tesla in a $ 5 billion gigafactory battery near Reno, Nevada.
Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Edited by William Mallard