The companies announced on Wednesday that a joint venture between the US unit of Spanish engineering group ACS and Philadelphia-based Yates Construction has won a contract to build an electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in Kansas as part of a $4 billion investment by Japan's Panasonic group.

According to ACS' Turner Construction, the EV battery factory in De Soto is expected to begin operations by the end of March 2025 and will have an annual production capacity of approximately 30 gigatonnes.

"The battery manufacturing facility is a critical part of Panasonic's investment in the United States to expand EV battery production capacity," the company said.

The project will also include the construction of a central utility plant and support buildings, in addition to the assembly facility.

The new federal subsidy policies signed into law in August as part of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act tie up to $3,750 in federal tax credits per vehicle to requirements that EV batteries be manufactured in North America using materials sourced in North America or from allied nations.

Panasonic Holdings Corporation, formerly Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. from 1935 to 2008 and Panasonic Corporation from 2008 to 2022, is a major Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka. Knosuke Matsushita founded the company in 1918 as a manufacturer of lightbulb sockets. Panasonic offers a wide range of products and services, including rechargeable batteries, automotive and avionic systems, industrial systems, and home renovation and construction, in addition to consumer electronics, of which it was the world's largest manufacturer in the late twentieth century.