The CEO has questioned an article announcing that Tesla was close to a deal to build production facilities in Indonesia.
Elon Musk is the key to everything at Tesla, past, present and future.
So every major announcement concerning the electric-vehicle leader passes through him.
In January 2022, Musk said that Tesla (TSLA) – Get Free Report might identify new Tesla factory locations at the end of the year. “2022 is the year we will be looking at factory locations to see what makes the most sense, with possibly some announcement by the end of this year,” the CEO said during the company’s fourth-quarter-2021 earnings call on Jan. 26, 2022.
In August he repeated that he hoped to formally announce the location of the clean-energy-car maker’s new gigafactory later in the year. Tesla’s goal is to produce 20 million vehicles annually by 2030, thus becoming the world’s largest carmaker by production volume.
These remarks have encouraged governments in many countries to court Tesla. Indonesia, South Korea, Canada and many others have dangled incentives to draw in a new Tesla manufacturing plant, with the accompanying jobs and other economic benefits it would bring.
New Factories or No New Factories?
But the year ended without an announcement. At the same time a Bloomberg article in mid-December reported that Tesla had nearly finalized a deal to build its new factory in Mexico.
The carmaker has been finalizing plans to build this vehicle-assembly plant in an industrial area of northeastern Mexico. The factory is to be located in Santa Catarina in Monterrey city, the capital of Nuevo Leon state, Bloomberg said.
Final details were still being worked out, and the talks with the company had involved both the state government and Mexico’s Foreign Ministry.
Musk was in the area in last October and met with local authorities. Additionally, Tesla already has an exclusive customs lane for parts crossing the border into Texas.
The company never commented.
On Jan. 11 Bloomberg News further reported that Tesla was close to a preliminary agreement to build production facilities in Indonesia. These production sites will have a capacity of one million vehicles manufactured per year, the news outlet said, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Indonesia’s investment minister confirmed talks with Tesla and Musk to Bloomberg, which nevertheless cautioned that the talks could still fail.
The information was well received on Wall Street, where Tesla shares gained almost 4%. The information followed meetings between Musk and Indonesian President Joko Widodo in 2022 and a five-year deal reached between Tesla and Indonesian nickel processors.
Nickel is used to make stainless steel and the batteries, which are the heart of an EV because they determine a vehicle’s range and play a key role in its performance and security.
Without clearly saying that the information is false, Musk has just questioned the article.
“Please be cautious about writing articles citing ‘unnamed sources’, as they are frequently false,” the CEO said on January 11.
The post left many Twitter users confused.
“So you are not buying a factory or building one in Indonesia at all? No truth to any of it?” asked a Twitter user.
“Guess we’ll have to wait until official announcement then,” added another user.
Tesla Earnings Report Is Due Jan. 25
Musk didn’t respond but he probably will say a little more when the company reports fourth-quarter results, scheduled for Jan. 25.
Bloomberg’s report on a possible factory in Indonesia to some extent changed the discussion surrounding Tesla. In recent weeks Topic A was the stock-market rout of Tesla stock: In 2022, it lost almost two-thirds (more than 65%) of its value, resulting in a drop of more than $600 billion in market capitalization.
The stock slump angered many retail investors, who have not hesitated to make their complaints known on social networks.
Tesla already has four assembly plants: Fremont, Calif., and Austin in the U.S., Shanghai and Berlin.
The first two mainly serve the North American market and have combined production capacity of 900,000 vehicles a year, according to Tesla. They produce all the Tesla models: the Model 3 sedan, the Model X and Model Y SUVs, and the high-end Model S. Beginning in mid-2023, the Austin plant will also produce the highly anticipated Cybertruck, in addition to the Model Y.
In Shanghai, the car manufacturer produces vehicles sold in Asia and Europe. But since the Tesla plant in Germany opened in March, the European market should be mainly served by this production site. Giga Shanghai has production capacity of over 750,000 vehicles annually.
The German factory is a car-assembly and battery-development site. It has annual production capacity of more than 250,000.
