Nikkei.com is reporting that Tesla has signed a deal with Panasonic to have the industrial giant supply the electric automaker with the machinery to stock its first Gigafactory.

The deal is worth between $194 million and $291 million. Overall investment in the project could climb to $5 billion with Panasonic's share climbing to $1 billion, Nikkei says.

A Tesla representative declined to comment on the report.

Tesla is hoping to begin construction on its first Gigafactory this year. The company wants to double the world's supply of lithium-ion batteries by 2020.

This is critical in multiple ways for Tesla. In particular, it could help the electric carmarker address some major supply constraints.

"Tesla's growth in 2013 was held back by a lack of batteries," reported the WSJ's Mike Ramsay in April. "Tesla, with sales of just over 22,400 cars last year, is already the largest buyer of lithium-ion battery cells in the world. With plans to sell 500,000 vehicles, its own demand would be greater than the demand for every laptop, mobile phone and tablet sold in the world.

Tesla was up more than 2% on Monday.

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