A Panasonic letter to US Customs officials revealed that most of the solar cells produced by its factory in upstate New York are, instead of being sold to Tesla as expected, being exported to foreign buyers, most notably in Asia. This news draws attention not only to Tesla's continuing troubles in the solar market, but also to the changes in Panasonic's solar customers. It will also be interesting to see how the two companies' relationship will transform, especially when Elon Musk has blamed Panasonic, Tesla's sole battery supplier, for EV production delays. Given that Panasonic has a much more robust patent portfolio in the Thin Film Photovoltaics sector, how will Tesla continue its residential solar business if it potentially loses access to Panasonic's IP?
