Elon Musk will meet with French president Emmanuel Macron for the second time in five weeks as Tesla looks to secure a site in Europe for its next gigafactory.
Last week Spanish media reported that a multinational automaker would invest $4.5 billion into a new factory in Valencia. Reuters reported that its sources suggested the company is Tesla.
But it appears a decision is yet to be made, with discussions with the French president set to continue on Friday.
“I’m going with an agenda,” Macron told reporters when asked about Friday’s meeting with Musk.
“We’re going to talk about artificial intelligence, in which he is involved, social media, regulation framework… And then I’ll also talk to him about cars, batteries, to promote French and European attractiveness.”
Macron was asked specifically whether he was hoping to secure a Tesla gigafactory.
“It’s up to the company to look at these different issues in Europe. So we’ll be selling France” he replied.
France’s Digital Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was even more explicit when he spoke to CNBC at the VivaTech summit in Paris on Wednesday.
“It will be great to have a Tesla factory in France, there has been a lot of effort and energy to make sure this is possible and this can happen,” Barrot told CNBC.
“We have also invested in an entire sector of electric batteries so we will try to convince him that France is the best possible place in Europe to establish the next Tesla factory.”
France wants to become an EV manufacturing hub. Last month the country opened its first EV battery plant in a former mining heartland. The Automotive Cell Company’s (ACC) gigafactory received a €1.3 billion in funding from France, Germany and Italy as part of a €7 billion plan to build a number of new facilities.
The new ACC factory will employ 2000 people and make 800,000 EV batteries per year. It’s the first of three plants with two more planned for Germany and Italy.
In March Tesla’s factory Berlin, its only one in Europe, hit a production rate of 5000 EVs per week. Once at full capacity the Berlin factory is expected to produce 2 million EVs per year.
Daniel Bleakley is a clean technology researcher and advocate with a background in engineering and business. He has a strong interest in electric vehicles, renewable energy, manufacturing and public policy.