By the end of September, Panasonic will no longer share the RiverBend facility with Tesla.
More than 400 Panasonic workers found out Wednesday morning they might be laid off as a result. The company said it will stop manufacturing solar products in North America by the end of May.
Many employees said they found out Tuesday night from watching the news as information started to be released from Empire State Development leaders.
Panasonic and Tesla have been working together at the RiverBend facility since 2016, with production starting in 2017.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown met with the plant manager and other Panasonic representatives Wednesday morning.
"Obviously we're very concerned about the employees and what will happen to the employees," he said.
The company told Brown it will hold two on-site job fairs and every employee will receive severance.
"Tesla has also indicated that they will try to hire as many of the Panasonic employees as possible but it looks like they have now reached their stated hiring goals so I would suspect those numbers are not going to be very large," the mayor said.
According to Tesla, this does not impact Tesla’s future solar growth business plans.
In fact, Tesla told state leaders it had exceeded its 1,500 job commitment goal. Governor Andrew Cuomo said RiverBend was always about Tesla not Panasonic as he defended the state's roughly $1 billion investment in the facility.
"The inescapable, factual conclusion is it has exceeded its goal, period," Cuomo said.
It also plans to ramp up production of its solar roofing product with plans to manufacture 1,000 solar roofs per week.
The state still must verify those numbers, but Brown said he believes the report.
"I do believe that, based on what I saw," he said. "As I mentioned, a few weeks ago I got the opportunity to take a pretty extensive tour of the plant."
Brown said he understands from June through September some Panasonic employees will stay on to decommission, clean up, and remove equipment.
State Republican Party Chairman Nick Langworthy called the Panasonic pull-out the latest issue with the "Buffalo Billion Boondoggle." He called on Tesla and the state to open the doors of the factory to the press and the public.