The US electric car maker is in talks with the Thai government over the site of a Battery Cell Gigafactory in the kingdom.
Tesla is in talks with the Thai government to open the Gigafactory, a lithium-ion battery cell factory in the kingdom, an official from the country’s prime minister’s office said.
Tesla and Thailand have been discussing a potential partnership for several years. Recently, the two sides have been establishing a serious relationship, meeting and discussing the site of the Gigafactory in Thailand.
Things are clearly moving in the right direction, as Thai government officials have stated that Tesla is considering building a manufacturing facility in the kingdom.
Gigafactories are defined as large-scale industrial complexes for producing electronics and microchips, and, with the pitch from Elon Musk, factories for electric cars and battery cells. A government spokesman confirmed that they are talking about electric vehicles and batteries.
The announcement followed several reciprocal visits by Tesla and Thai officials to each other. Last year, Tesla hosted Prime Minister Settha Thaiswin at the company’s factory in Fremont in Northern California, where Settha Thaiswin and Lars Moravi were photographed on the roof of a cyber truck.
This is far from the only meeting between Tesla and Thailand in the past year: in November, Prime Minister Settha revealed that the electric car maker would send officials to the country to select potential locations for Tesla factories.
Prime Minister Settha Thavisin also met with CEO Elon Musk in September in New York, where the two sides discussed Tesla, SpaceX and Starlink, Settha said.
Thailand has a developed automotive industry and remains Southeast Asia’s largest producer and exporter of cars. However, the kingdom continues to work to increase support for the electric vehicle sector as the country aims to become a central electric vehicle manufacturing location for many companies.
According to Reuters, Thailand has received more than $1.44 billion in investment from Chinese car companies.
Thailand has a high regard for Tesla. The kingdom has already set up manufacturing facilities for Chinese electric car manufacturers, and the government also wants Tesla in the country for several reasons.
The first reason is that Tesla is considered one of the best electric car companies in the world. Even though China’s BYD overtook the US brand in global production in Q4, Tesla remains the leader in electric vehicle technology.
The second reason is that Tesla’s presence in the region will encourage other automakers to consider Thailand as a potential production centre.
More Articles Here
More Articles Here
