Panasonic announced that it will scale down operations and temporarily suspend lithium-ion battery cell production at the Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada (for 14 days) due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The news follows Tesla's announcement about closing the Fremont factory and New York factory on March 24, but is quite surprising, as Tesla did not give any sign - on March 19th - that the Gigafactory will also be closed. At the moment there is also no official comment from Tesla.

The joint venture manufacturing plant is the key facility that supplies battery cells for Model 3 and Model Y produced in California (Model S/X were getting cells from Japan).

Here is the statement from Panasonic via TechCrunch:

"Panasonic is committed to safeguarding the health and well-being of every employee. The Panasonic factory in Sparks, Nevada will begin ramping down operations early next week and will then close for 14 days.