i don't think anybody actually watched that lecture by that professor now. all these comments about everything but what they are working on in Tesla's battery lab.
they will not use panasonic's current designs and panasonic is only in this deal so they can be part of the production. i think they are only gonna invest about $600 million out of the $2-3 billion of the total cost.
like i said before the reason this is not gonna be built in china or japan is to prevent the loss of trade secrets inside Tesla. he knows he can trust the US engineering staff to keep their mouth shut because people who work for elon are totally devoted and loyal to him because of how he treats them and how they know what they are doing is on the cutting edge. when you do advanced research, as an engineer or physicist like i did, there is no incentive to steal the trade secrets and give them over to the chinese. just like the young people who run spaceX, they are all totally devoted to him so that is the best guarantee he has that the trade secrets about the electrolyte composition and additives will not be leaked to the competition.
the high precision charger/discharger equipment gives Tesla the ability to do life cycle testing in a few days or weeks instead of years or decades like the other manufacturers so they will be able to tweak the exact electrolyte chemistry so far in advance of the competition that they will be able to command the market, and panasonic is tagging along to be part of it.
if you have not listened to that lecture, you should go listen because it is very clear from that where Tesla is going. mitch had hung it up again a month or so ago.