Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk is a controversial character, but Tesla, the extremely successful producer of the most popular new car in the world last year, is showing no signs of slowing down. Tesla promised to open a new Gigafactory in Mexico last February, but Musk paused discussions about the proposed new Gigafactory citing the upcoming U.S. presidential election. The election is over, and Mexico wants to know if Elon Musk and Tesla will actually follow through with this promise, or if it will be added to the growing list of promises broken by Musk.
Then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced in February of 2023 that the northern state of Nuevo León was going to be the location of the next Tesla Gigafactory. Last year, notable Donald Trump fan (and probably upcoming cabinet member) Elon Musk said that Tesla would definitely build its new factory in Mexico, but the timeline would be dependent on the economy and interest rates. As InsideEVs reported, the plan was originally for the factory to come online in early 2025, but there’s no signs of it. The former President and current President-elect Donald Trump said that he would impose tariffs of 200 percent or more on vehicles imported into the United States from Mexico, which surely has impacted the decisionmaking. Reuters said,
“Mexico’s economy chief will try to meet soon with Tesla’s chief executive Elon Musk to determine his plans for an electric car factory in northern Mexico, he told local radio on Thursday, part of a push to grow the country’s key carmaking sector
Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard is a former foreign minister and veteran political operator, and reviving plans for a so-called Tesla gigafactory in Mexico’s Nuevo Leon state would mark a major early victory for the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office last month.
U.S.-based Tesla is the world’s top maker of electric vehicles.
“I’m going to set up a meeting with (Musk) soon so that he tells me exactly what he’s thinking and see what we can do so this project moves forward,” Ebrard told local radio broadcaster Radio Formula.”
It will be interesting to see how many of Trump’s infamous tariffs actually get imposed, but his campaign promises may end up being the nail in the coffin of a Mexican Tesla Gigafactory. A significant 3.6 percent of Mexico’s Gross Domestic Product is thanks to the country’s automotive industry. Each of Tesla’s Gigafactories are known to employ tens of thousands of people across Europe, China, and North America, so building and staffing Giga Mexico would be a significant boost to the Mexican economy. One thing’s for certain — the next few years sure will be interesting.