Elon Musk reportedly says that Turkey is “among the most important candidates for the next Tesla factory,” after meeting with President Erdogan.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Musk met in New York today to discuss a variety of subjects, but the main goal was reportedly to convince the CEO to consider Turkey for Tesla’s next factory.
The country’s communications directorate released some details about the meeting, including a claim that Musk said Turkey is “was among the most important candidates” for next Tesla factory (via Reuters):
It cited Musk as saying that many Turkish suppliers are already working with Tesla and that Turkey was among the most important candidates for its next factory.
While Tesla recently announced plans to build a new factory Mexico, the automaker is expected to continue announcing new factories in the near future.
Musk said in May that Tesla should announce a new factory location by the end of the year.
Tesla has a goal to produce 20 million vehicles per year by the end of the decade, and it’s expected that it will need another seven new factories to achieve that.
The automaker has been scouting locations in Canada for a few years. There have also been talks about Tesla discussing potential new factories in India and France.
Turkey would be a surprising location for the next Tesla factory.
Top comment by Doubledutch
Turkey has a customs union with the EU, low wages and a successful industrial sector. An additional benefit for Elon is that it is the least democratic country in Western Europe (as per the EIU). Since he has recently been promoting pretty strong anti-democratic tendencies himself, I am sure he will feel much happier there than in Germany, where he is always being constrained by the rule of law. California vs Texas = Berlin vs Turkey: In future, he can threaten the Germans if they don't provide an expansion permit.
Tesla is not officially selling its vehicles in Turkey yet, but there are many Tesla owners in the country who went to the trouble of importing the electric vehicles themselves and having them operate without access to services.
For years now, they have been asking Tesla to expand in the country with stores and service centers.
Back in May of 2018, Musk finally said that Tesla planned to launch in Turkey later that year. However, the plan was reportedly abandoned later in 2018 amid an escalating tariff war.
Late last year, Electrek learned that Tesla is finally preparing to launch in Turkey as it started to hire employees in the country.
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