American workers have bigger hands, and other lessons Panasonic learned in Tesla’s Gigafactory

(Credit: Troy Harvey—Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Making batteries for electric vehicles is finicky work. More Americans will be doing it in the years ahead, thanks to federal incentives enticing companies to base EV battery manufacturing in the U.S. instead of Asia.

At Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada, where production began in 2016, battery-cell partner Panasonic has for years employed thousands of workers at its operation within the sprawling plant—and it’s learned some important lessons along the way.