Tesla Motors will partner with Panasonic Corp. to create the $5 billion "gigafactory" battery plant that the company has said will bring down the cost of its popular but expensive electric cars. Panasonic could invest as much as $1 billion in the massive facility, which Tesla plans to build at an undetermined location in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas or Nevada.

Tesla already uses Panasonic's lithium-ion battery cells, produced in Japan, for its California-made electric automobiles. Under the terms of the new partnership, jointly announced in Palo Alto, Calif., and Osaka, Japan, Tesla will supply the factory and Panasonic will build the cells at the new facility.

- Los Angeles Times