Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has denied a report by the Wall Street Journal claiming that Tesla was in talks with Saudi Arabia to build an EV factory in the Kingdom. In a post on the social media platform X, Musk described the article as “utterly false.” The report from the Wall Street Journal cited unnamed sources and stated that the talks between Tesla and Saudi Arabia were still at an early stage, with uncertain outcomes due to Musk’s contentious relationship with the Saudis and the presence of Tesla’s competitor, Lucid Motors, which is majority-owned by the Saudi state.
Earlier this year, there were reports that Musk had met with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to discuss the possibility of a Tesla factory in Turkey. While the Turkish state news agency confirmed the meeting, it is unclear whether any concrete plans were discussed.
Tesla’s ambition is to achieve 20 million car sales per year by 2030, which would require doubling the number of its factories. Currently, Tesla has factories in the US, Germany, and China. Talks were also initiated with the Indian government for a factory in India, but plans were abandoned when the Indian government refused to lower import taxes on cars.
Source: OilPrice.com
Title: Elon Musk Denies Reports of Tesla Factory in Saudi Arabia
Definitions: EV (Electric Vehicle): a vehicle that is powered by an electric motor instead of a traditional internal combustion engine.
Sources: OilPrice.com