Contxto – Brazil is flirting with Tesla, trying to get the electric car company to open a Gigafactory in that country. According to InsideEVs, government officials held a videoconference with a Tesla rep to discuss the possibility this month.
Brazilian officials would hope to have the car manufacturer operating in Santa Catarina within up to three years.
At the moment, Tesla has Gigafactories to produce its slick electric vehicles in Germany, China, and the United States.
Note that these are just initial talks. However, Brazil certainly has a lot of arguments in its favor to persuade the auto company.
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Brazil as the highway into Latam?
No doubt the nation of samba and caipirinhas is the largest market in all of Latin America, and its population is increasingly qualified to comply with Tesla’s production standards.
Brazil can also leverage its geographical location to connect with other sizable markets such as Argentina, Colombia, and Chile.
At the moment, Tesla doesn’t produce its own battery cells, but rather it has partners that do. However, the carmaker is exploring the possibility of doing the job itself. And if it were to move forward, Brazil would also be an attractive option in that direction.
Especially considering this Latam country has vast reserves of lithium, a material that’s crucial for the battery-powered cars to work. And by making its way to that part of the continent, Tesla would also have Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile nearby, and they too have reserves.
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Who’s who
On Brasilia’s end of the negotiations in the video conference were Marcos Pontes, the Minister of Science, Technology, Innovations, and Communications as well as Congressman, Daniel Freitas. The pair have tax breaks and financing perks in order to convince the car manufacturer.
While on Tesla’s end was Anderson Ricardo Pacheco. He’s a Senior Staff Manufacturing Engineer, who interestingly carried out his Master’s in the Federal University of Santa Catarina, in Brazil.
So perhaps his background can help the country find common ground with the American automaker.
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-ML
