Panasonic Energy Q2 Profit Hits 55.6B Yen, Forecast Raised to 198B
Panasonic's energy unit earned 55.6 billion yen in the second quarter, up from 1.2 billion yen, on EV and data-centre storage sales, Reuters reported. Its full-year forecast rose 16%.
Energy & Cooling DeskEdited by Ege Erten
2 min readAI-assisted
Panasonic's raised forecast for its energy unit, with the previous forecast and the group forecast, per Reuters.
Illustration (AI-generated)
Panasonic Holdings said its energy unit earned an operating profit of 55.6 billion yen ($352 million) in the second quarter, up from 1.2 billion yen a year earlier, according to Reuters on Oct. 30. The company credited higher sales of in-vehicle batteries and data-centre energy storage systems.
Panasonic raised the unit's full-year operating profit forecast for the year ending March 2027 by 16%, to 198 billion yen from 171 billion yen, Reuters reported. The company makes batteries for Tesla and other EV makers.
What drove the energy unit's profit
Panasonic said quarterly profit grew on higher sales of EV batteries in North America and of data-centre energy storage systems, per Reuters. It added that demand for in-vehicle batteries from strategic customers continued to significantly outperform the overall market, a claim the company did not break down by customer.
The energy unit's second-quarter operating profit rose from a low base of 1.2 billion yen, according to Reuters and a company statement.
Illustration (AI-generated)
The jump from 1.2 billion yen to 55.6 billion yen is a swing in a single unit, so the comparison is against a very low base. The dollar figure is Reuters' conversion at 157.85 yen to the dollar. Reuters gave no sales figure for the unit, so the profit margin cannot be worked out from the report.
Why the data-centre line matters
Panasonic names data-centre energy storage alongside EV batteries as a reason for the profit. That is the same demand signal Voltgrid reported when Samsung SDI's third-quarter profit rose on AI data-centre storage. Cell makers are pointing to backup and storage systems for AI loads as a profit line next to vehicles.
For buyers of cells, a raised forecast from one of Tesla's suppliers also bears on the supply picture that Tesla described when it started its 50 GWh Megafactory in Texas.
Group outlook and what is not confirmed
Panasonic also lifted its group operating profit forecast for the period by 120 billion yen, or 20%, to 710 billion yen, partly because its AI-related businesses grew faster than expected, Reuters said.
Several figures a battery reader would want are not in the Reuters report: the energy unit's sales, the split between data-centre storage and automotive, the capacity of storage systems sold, and any update on the company's Kansas plant. The figures in this story come from Reuters' report on the results.
