I won't speculate as to their motives, just the evidence I see that Tesla is deploying their own battery know-how to the project, so some sharing of some sort m

I won't speculate as to their motives, just the evidence I see that Tesla is deploying their own battery know-how to the project, so some sharing of some sort must be going on. Edit: Found some info straight from the source[1]. Panasonic executive vice president Yoshihiko Yamada thought Elon and Co. were crazy initially when they proposed this idea. Eventually he saw the light and now the companies are closer than ever. Here’s how he put it: “Three years ago I thought this gigantic Gigafactory idea was crazy. Because then the production of the factory would exceed production of the industry. I thought it was a crazy idea. But I was crazy, and I was wrong after seeing extreme success of the announcement of the Model 3 and the strong demand…I want to explain to you the relationship with Tesla and Panasonic. I used to be in charge of components five or six years ago. At that time our relationship with Tesla was one of supplier and customer. A conventional business relationship.“But since we started discussion on the Gigafactory that’s completely changed. One example, is production capacity is now two or three times more. Why? Because Tesla and manufacturing people worked together. We are discussing these details. This type of relationship is quite new for business. We are not the simple buyer and supplier relationship.” (emphasis mine) 1. http://electrek.co/2016/07/28/tesla-gigafactory-tour-roundup-and-tidbits-this-is-the-coolest-factory-ever/ http://electrek.co/2016/07/28/tesla-gigafactory-tour-roundup...