According to the company’s CEO, Tesla might announce the installation of a new factory by the end of the year.
At the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council conference on Tuesday, Elon Musk stayed mum about the site of a potential facility. Still, it concurred with the moderator that India was “absolutely” a fascinating country.
Later in the meeting, he clarified that the business is “not currently looking at new locations.”
Tesla runs several so-called Gigafactories in the United States and two outside of it, in the vicinity of Shanghai, China, and Berlin, Germany. The business said earlier this year that it would also construct a facility in Monterrey, Mexico; manufacturing will begin there in 2024.
A request for comment from Tesla should have been complied with.
- Choosing India
For many years, Musk has wished to enter the Indian market.
However, Musk’s attempts to enter the Indian market were hampered by the hefty import levies on electric vehicles, which may be as high as 100%. Tesla created two local businesses in early 2021.
Instead of requesting tax incentives, India demanded that Musk commits to local produce or, at the very least, assemble automobiles. As an alternative, Tesla said India should first reduce levies so that the business could gauge demand for imported cars before committing to production.
Tesla’s position may have softened in recent weeks, though.
According to Reuters, Tesla officials visited India last week and suggested building an EV facility there to serve domestic and foreign markets.
Tesla is “very seriously looking at India as a production and innovation base,” Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India’s deputy technology minister, told Reuters afterwards. Given that “you don’t talk about cars alone,” Chandrasekar speculated that Tesla could be interested in more than car manufacture.
One of the nations vying to host a prospective new facility in India.
Joko Widodo, the president of Indonesia, has personally urged Elon Musk to increase investment in the nation, particularly in nickel production. One of the most outstanding nickel deposits in the world, which is a crucial component of batteries, is in this Southeast Asian nation.
Yoon Suk-Yeol, the president of South Korea, met Musk on his recent trip to the United States. According to Yoon, Musk informed her that South Korea was one of the top locations for Tesla’s future manufacturing.
- China
Musk plans to imitate the Shanghai Gigafactory, which Tesla opened in 2019, and its success.
The facility will produce more than half of Tesla’s delivered cars in 2022, making it a crucial link in the company’s supply chain. As one of the few international automakers to thrive in the competitive EV industry, Tesla is also one of the top sellers of electric vehicles to Chinese consumers.
The country’s strict COVID rules, which included a two-month lockout in Shanghai, greatly impacted production and exports in 2022, which was also tricky for Tesla.
Due to supplier shutdowns, Tesla’s Shanghai production dropped below capacity even with special clearance to continue working during the lockout.
To gain market share from other companies, including Nio, Xpeng, and industry leader BYD, the firm more recently engaged in a pricing war.
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