During Tesla’s Investor Day (an event where public companies provide information on strategic issues to their investors and shareholders), Elon Musk confirmed what President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had announced the day before: that Tesla would build a major factory in Mexico, specifically in the state of Nuevo León.
Musk confirmed the factory plans on Wednesday, stressed that it was arguably the most important news of the day, and clarified that production at this factory would complement rather than replace any manufacturing at other Tesla facilities. (Reforma newspaper speculated that the factory would be to build the Model 2, a new Tesla model, Tesla’s most affordable to date).
Musk accompanied the announcement with a rendering of the Mexican “gigafactory,” Tesla’s concept for its large-scale production facilities, which is now also used by other companies. His exact statements, available on the video of the event, were as follows:
“Probably the most significant announcement of the day is that we’re excited to announce that we’re going to be building a new Gigafactory in Mexico… We’ll have obviously a grand opening and groundbreaking and whatnot. But we’re excited to announce the next Tesla gigafactory will be in Mexico near Monterrey. So super excited about it”.
“I do want to emphasize that we will continue to expand production at all of our existing factories, including California, Nevada, here in Texas, obviously, in Shanghai… We intend to increase production in all factories, so giga-Mexico would be supplemental to the output of all the other factories. To be clear, this is not moving output from anywhere to anywhere, it is simply about expanding total global output, so it’s gonna be good.”
He then asked if the governor (Samuel García) was there (he was) and was given a round of applause. He added that he believed the Secretary of Foreign Affairs was also present at the event.
Marcelo Ebrad was not present, although representing him was Martha Delgado, Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights, who posted a selfie with Musk and a message celebrating the news.
Con @ElonMusk CEO de @Tesla quien esta tarde confirmó la construcción de una megafábrica de autos en nuestro país. A nombre de todo 🇲🇽 le damos la bienvenida y nuestro total agradecimiento. ¡El futuro empieza hoy, no mañana! #TeslaEnMéxico pic.twitter.com/mpuKOAIFv6
— Martha Delgado +🤚🏻 (@marthadelgado) March 2, 2023
The Mexican Government issued a statement celebrating the official announcement and that Tesla’s investment “will attract an investment flow amounting to US$5,000′ and create between 5,000 and 6,000 jobs.
They also said that they had been coordinating with Tesla for 14 months. Among other things “facilitating communication with other entities of the federal public administration, and state and municipal governments”.
It is known that the plant will be located in the municipality of Santa Catalina, which is 30 minutes from Monterrey. It is not known when the work will be completed, although some estimate that it should take two years to be built.
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