Today we have received a conflicting rumor suggesting Tesla is eyeing Mexico City rather than Nuevo Leon for the EV maker's Mexico plant. Although citing high-ranking Mexican officials, the new report still contains some far-fetched claims suggesting Tesla chose the site in order to utilize a new airport to export vehicles using planes.
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Tesla is currently undertaking a significant expansion of the company’s production capability. Tesla is simultaneously ramping production at a new Gigafactory in Gruenheide Germany and Austin Texas; the EV maker is also expanding production capacity at its Fremont, California plant and Shanghai Gigafactory.
According to Elon Musk, in 2023 the EV maker plans to produce 1.8 million. And by 2030 the company plans to grow this number to 20 million vehicles a year. Elon Musk in the past has also said, Tesla plans to have at least one Gigafactory in every continent the company sells its vehicles.
Due to Tesla’s ambitious growth plans, the EV maker is looking at several countries to pick the location for the company’s next Gigafactory. This has meant sporadic reports claiming Tesla has chosen a certain country to build a new Gigafactory.
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The first rumors began with reports claiming Tesla has chosen Karnataka, India as the site for the company’s next Gigafactory. The rumors cite Karnataka state Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa who said in a statement “American firm Tesla will open its electric car manufacturing unit in Karnataka.”
Following, there were reports stating Tesla had chosen Indonesia as the site for the company’s next Gigafactory. These rumors began due to Tesla’s Battery Day announcement that the company plans to significantly increase its nickel consumption and the mineral’s abundance in the country.
And reports started to emerge suggesting that Tesla has chosen Mexico as the site for the company’s next Gigafactory. This report was further corroborated by the news that the EV maker has secured land for the new factory in Nuevo Leon, Mexico.
Adding to the likelihood of the reports was also the fact that a few months ago Elon Musk was spotted visiting Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and talking with the Undersecretary of Investment of the state economy. At the time it was reported that the Undersecretary had invited Musk to invest in Nuevo León.
The rumors even went so far as to claim Tesla is slated to announce Giga Mexico before the end of December and a Mexican publication Reforma also gave out some details regarding the factory including that Tesla is looking to spend between $800 million and $1 billion, but the investment could eventually grow to as much as $10 billion with planned future expansions.
Reforma also claimed that if Tesla does not announce Giga Mexico by December, the EV maker will announce the plant in January.
This was certainly exciting while it lasted, however, a few days later, in a statement made to Nikkei Asia, Emmanuel Loo, the deputy secretary of economic development for Nuevo Leon poured cold water on the rumors saying that there hasn’t been any deal reached between Tesla and the state.
To add insult to injury, Loo even went so far as to confirm that a deal on a potential investment might not even be made in 2023. However, Loo has nonetheless confirmed that Tesla and Nuevo Leon are indeed in talks and that the rumors are not entirely baseless.
Although disappointing, we assumed Loo’s statement will at least for a while put a stop to the Tesla Mexico factory rumors. However, in less than a week, we have once again reports claiming Tesla is eyeing a different location in Mexico to open a factory.
Today, Reuters came out with a report claiming “Tesla is considering setting up an assembly plant near a new Mexico City airport, which would serve as an export hub for the firm.”
According to Reuters the source of this new information is Mexican Presidential Spokesman Jesus Ramirez, and quoted the spokesperson as saying “Tesla could put a plant at an industrial park in development about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the Felipe Angeles International Airport (AIFA), a new hub opened by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador last year.”
And in a somewhat hard-to-swallow suggestion, Reuters quotes Ramirez as saying “Tesla will invest there ... in an assembly plant, to export directly by air.”
Tesla with all its new factories plans for a production rate of hundreds of thousands of vehicles a year, and imagining Tesla exporting these many vehicles by plane is hard to believe if not downright laughable.
Having said that, if we ignored this one suggestion, the prospects of a new Tesla factory in Mexico are certainly exciting. Currently, we only have a single report suggesting the new Mexico City location for Tesla’s next factory. However, we will be sure to keep you posted once we learn more about Tesla’s plans.
Until then, make sure to visit our site torquenews.com/Tesla regularly for the latest updates.
So what do you think? Is Mexico a good location for Tesla’s next Gigafacotry? Also, what do you make of the report suggesting Tesla plans to use planes to export vehicles out of the country? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Image: Courtesy of Tesla
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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.
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