Indonesian Official Confirms Talks With Tesla Are Ongoing, Says Giga Mexico Doesn’t Change Tesla’s Asia Plans

Tesla, in the last 2 months has announced it will be building 2 new factories - one adjacent to Giga Nevada, and another in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. However, despite the already aggressive expansion plans, an Indonesian official has confirmed talks to build an EV plant are ongoing and that Giga Mexico doesn't change Tesla's plant to build a factory in Asia.

In the past few years, Tesla has been growing vehicle production at a breakneck speed. For example, in 2022 Tesla was able to produce 1.38 million vehicles. This is a 47% growth from 2021 when Tesla delivered 936,000 vehicles.

Tesla’s 2022 achievement is on its own impressive however, things start to look even more incredible if we go back and compare Tesla’s 2022 production with that of 2018.

For all of 2018, Tesla was able to produce 245,000 cars, and when we compare that to 2022’s 1.38 million vehicle production, that means Tesla has managed to grow vehicle production by 6 folds in only 4 years.

And even more impressively, Tesla was able to achieve this growth in the midst of a global parts shortage and global pandemic that has forced some legacy automakers to cut production by as much as 50%.

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This is all well and good, however, Tesla is just getting started. Per the company’s Investor Day presentation, Tesla plans to grow vehicle production annually by 50% until it reaches a production rate of 20 million vehicles a year by 2030.

To achieve this goal, Tesla is currently ramping up vehicle production at 2 of its latest factories on two continents. In addition, Tesla is increasing production capacity at 2 of its existing plants in Shanghai and Fremont, California and the EV maker is also building a new factory adjacent to Giga Nevada.

And at the recent Investor Day event, Tesla also unveiled a new gigafactory it plans to build in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Including the Mexico plant, Tesla has now announced two future gigafactories it will be building, has two new gigafactories at the early stages of a production ramp, and is also increasing production at two other operating plants.

Given all these expansion plans, one will assume, at least for now, Tesla is done picking out new sites to build more factories. However, a Reuters interview with an Indonesian official suggests Tesla has at least one more factory in the works.

Luhut Pandjaitan, who’s a senior cabinet minister in the Indonesian government has confirmed to Reuters that talks between Tesla and his country regarding an EV production facility are ongoing and Luhut added “he plans to talk with the U.S. carmaker in the coming days.”

And speaking about a new EV incentive plan his country is rolling out Luhut said “we are finalizing negotiations with two big global car producers. We hope this new policy will make our position much stronger than before."

Asked whether Tesla’s announcement to build a new plant in Mexico will affect the EV maker’s plans in Indonesia, Luhut “played down doubts and said the Mexico facility would serve the North American market, adding he believed Tesla has a separate commitment in Asia, whether it would be Indonesia, we will see."

It’s exciting to see that despite all the expansion plans announced in the last couple of months, Tesla is still planning another factory in Asia. Currently, the talks are ongoing however, we will be sure to keep you posted once Tesla makes a decision on the location for its second Asian factory.

Until then, make sure to visit our site torquenews.com/Tesla regularly for the latest updates.

So what do you think? Surprised to learn that Tesla is still looking for yet another location to build a new gigafactory? Do you think the EV maker is expanding too fast and needs to slow down? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Image: Courtesy of Tesla

For more information check out: An In-Depth Look At Tesla's 770 Million Vehicle Goal

Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and The evolution of the EV space on a daily basis for several years. He covers everything about Tesla from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.