Elon Musk is being courted by a number of nations who need a new Tesla manufacturing facility, together with Indonesia and South Korea. Ludovic Marin—Pool/AFP through Getty Images

Tesla might announce a new addition to its international suite of factories by the tip of the yr, the corporate’s CEO stated on Tuesday.

Elon Musk didn’t give a sign of the place a future manufacturing facility is perhaps constructed on the Wall Street’s Journal’s CEO Council convention on Tuesday, however agreed with the moderator that India was “absolutely” an attention-grabbing location.

He clarified later within the session that the corporate is “not currently looking at new locations.”

Tesla operates a number of so-called Gigafactories within the U.S., and two outdoors of the U.S., close to Berlin, Germany, and Shanghai, China. The firm revealed earlier this yr that it would also construct a manufacturing facility in Monterrey, Mexico, with an anticipated manufacturing begin date of 2024. 

Tesla didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

India choice

Musk has needed to interrupt into the Indian marketplace for several years now.

Tesla established two native subsidiaries in early 2021, however Musk’s efforts to interrupt into the Indian market have been hindered by high import duties on electrical autos, which might be as excessive as 100%. 

India requested that Musk promise to fabricate, or not less than assemble, automobiles domestically as an alternative of asking for tax breaks. Tesla, as an alternative, argued that India should lower taxes first in order that the corporate might check demand with imported automobiles earlier than committing to manufacturing. 

But Tesla’s stance might have weakened in latest weeks.

Tesla executives traveled to India final week, and proposed establishing a manufacturing facility to construct EVs within the nation, for each home and export markets, Reuters reported final week. 

Tesla is “very seriously looking at India as a production and innovation base,” Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India’s deputy expertise minister, later told Reuters. Chandrasekar prompt that Tesla could also be concerned with extra than simply automobile manufacturing, noting that “you don’t talk about cars alone.”

India is only one nation jockeying to be the house of a possible new manufacturing facility.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo has personally lobbied Musk to speculate extra within the nation, particularly in nickel manufacturing. The Southeast Asian nation has one of many world’s largest reserves of nickel, a key materials in batteries. 

South Korean president Yoon Suk-Yeol additionally met Musk throughout his go to to the U.S. final month. Musk reportedly informed Yoon that South Korea was one of many high candidates for Tesla’s subsequent manufacturing facility.

China

Musk’s concept might be to duplicate the success of Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory, which opened in 2019.

The manufacturing facility is now a essential a part of Tesla’s provide chain, making over half the corporate’s delivered automobiles in 2022. Tesla can also be one of many high sellers of electrical autos to Chinese customers, and one of many few overseas carmakers to reach the robust EV market.

Yet Tesla additionally had a troublesome 2022, because the nation’s robust COVID controls, together with a two-month lockdown in Shanghai, severely disrupted manufacturing and exports.

Even with particular permission to maintain working by the lockdown, Tesla’s Shanghai manufacturing fell below capacity because of shutdowns amongst its suppliers.

More not too long ago, the corporate launched a price war in a bid to seize market share from its rivals, like Nio, Xpeng, and market chief BYD.