Panasonic says EV market slowdown in U.S. worse than expected

TOKYO -- Japan's Panasonic Holdings said on Friday that its EV battery arm will likely miss its initial profitability target due to a worse-than-expected slowdown in the North American market for electric vehicles.

"There was an unexpected steep decline in demand for the product that we make in Japan and ship to our strategic partner," President and CEO Yuki Kusumi said, using a phrase widely understood to refer to Panasonic's biggest customer for EV batteries, American EV maker Tesla.