Tesla CEO Elon Musk met with French President Emmanuel Macron last week in Paris, sparking rumors that Musk might be saying oui to a French Gigafactory soon.
Tesla's first Gigafactory, a prototype "machine that builds the machine," as Musk has called factories, was built in 2014 in Sparks, Nevada, in order to mass-produce battery cells for Tesla's electric vehicles (EVs).
While the first Gigafactory only makes batteries, those built since then manufacture both the batteries and the vehicles themselves. This furthers the company's mission "to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass market electric cars to market as soon as possible."
More Gigafactories means more EVs, which should lower the cost of Teslas. This will make them more attainable to the masses and help achieve the Biden Administration's goal that 50% of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030.
This is in service of reducing the impact of transportation on the environment, which is the largest contributor of toxic heat-trapping gases in the country and a major contributor worldwide.
With five Gigafactories currently operating, Tesla's annual production potential is around 1.8 million units. However, the company wants to grow this to 20 million units globally by 2030.
Even with a Gigafactory slated in Mexico, Tesla plans to expand both the Nevada and Berlin Gigafactories, and the company will need to build several more Gigafactories — cue the French speculation.
Four gigafactory-scale operations by other companies have already been announced in France's "battery valley," and Macron initiated an incentive offering up to 5,000 euros for buyers of new EVs produced in Europe.
Further, Musk told local media he hoped Tesla would make a "significant investment" in France in the future.
As far as France's position overall, The Guardian reported that Xavier Bertrand, head of the Hauts-de-France region, told Agence France-Presse (AFP), "We're going all in on this … The aim is to have the whole chain here — it's a strategic choice. This is a decade of transformation and we absolutely need to be in the vanguard."
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