It is “very likely that Tesla will do something very important in France in the years to come,” said Elon Musk, in an interview broadcast Monday, June 19 on France 2. The Tesla boss thus reiterated his interest in France , without however confirming the location of the factory desired by Emmanuel Macron. The interview was recorded on Friday June 16 on the sidelines of the VivaTech show in Paris. The billionaire met Emmanuel Macron the same day, for the third time in a few months, the French president hoping to convince him to install a Tesla battery factory in France.
At the Choose France summit in mid-May in Versailles, the billionaire had already promised that Tesla would make “significant investments in France”. For now, nothing has come and his choice could also be Spain, almost four years after choosing Berlin for the first factory of the electric car manufacturer in Europe.
“France is the second largest economy in Europe, there is a lot of talent in France” and “people from all over the world” want to come there, argued the controversial boss of Twitter and Space X. His capital Paris is a “very very beautiful city, I think that’s an attractive factor,” he added.
Asked about the possibility of seeing, in France, the ecological bonus for the purchase of an electric car ultimately reserved for vehicles manufactured in Europe, Elon Musk replied that “it was a good thing to localize production”. “It’s better for the environment to produce locally. But “electric vehicles have to be able to operate, have to be viable in the long term without subsidies.” Subsidies will not last forever,” he said.