France Offers Several Investment Options to Elon Musk
France has offered several options for investment in the country to Elon Musk, according to the finance minister. He said he is “very hopeful” Tesla’s CEO would choose France for significant investments related to the production of electric vehicles.
French finance minister ‘very hopeful’ of bringing in Tesla
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire spoke on LCI television on Sunday. He said he was “very hopeful” Tesla CEO Elon Musk would choose France for significant investment. The minister said that if there are investments, they will be related to the production of electric vehicles in Europe.
Asked if the investment could be related to batteries or other parts of Tesla’s business, Le Maire said: “There are several options on the table.” He also said the country has gone to great lengths to make it clear that Musk’s company is highly coveted in France.
“He [Musk] knows that he would be welcome in France”, Le Maire said. “It’s up to him to take the decision,” he added.
Elon Musk is looking for a place for a new gigafactory in Europe
Tesla is currently looking for the best location for the next gigafactory. According to speculation and rumors, the company has considered France, Spain, and Italy. However, there has recently been a rumor that Spain has left the list of contenders. Tesla was reported to have abandoned plans to build a factory there due to the fact that its possible presence in the country was quickly leaked to the media.
The rumor about Italy comes after Musk visited the country last month and met with Prime Minister Georgia Meloni. Although local Tesla fans would like the company to build a factory in Italy, so far there has been no other information that this will happen.
Also, after visiting Italy, Musk visited France. There he met with President Emmanuel Macron. This was not their first meeting in recent weeks. Before the last meeting, the president said he would advertise his country as the location for the Tesla factory.
“I am not meeting Elon Musk with hope, but with an agenda,” Macron told reporters on the sidelines of a VivaTech conference in Paris. Probably at the time of the meeting, Musk was offered various investment options.
Tesla may need a battery factory
The company already has a car factory in Europe. Building a second one right now might be unnecessary. However, it may make sense for Tesla to build a battery factory. At the moment, the company is facing difficulties in Germany and the constant struggle is slowing down development. If the company finds a favorable location in Europe where it can produce batteries and supply them for car production at Giga Berlin, it could ease Tesla’s operations in the region.
In addition, we should not ignore the possibility that Tesla could be looking for a place to build a factory for the production of its new generation electric vehicles.