There would be a second meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday, revealed the former. A little more than a month ago the two had a meeting. The upcoming meet would be held over making France as one of the centres of electric vehicle (EV) maker’s factories along with discussing tech regulation.
Working towards turning France as a hub for electric vehicles, it has been pushing the big Chinese electric vehicle company BYD as well as Tesla to construct factories in the nation. France is not only focusing in becoming a hub for electric vehicles but it has taken this task in a competitive way as Spain is also in talks with Tesla, officials told British news agency Reuters.
The biggest tech fair in France, VivaTech summit, held in Paris was attended by the French President where he said, “I’m going (into that meeting) with an agenda.” Elon Musk will visit the summit on Friday.
“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 added.
While answering to a question that if he had expectations of owning a Tesla gigafactory, Macron said, “It’s up to the company to look at these different issues in Europe. So we’ll be selling France” as an investment destination.
Since Macron took office, France has been overtaking other European countries in its quest to become a centre for the electric vehicle industry, thanks to significant subsidies, a more welcoming climate for business, and aggressive lobbying.
Four gigafactory projects have been established in its northern region, with the first one being opened last month by a group that included TotalEnergies, Mercedes-Benz, and Stellantis, the owner of Peugeot.
“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,” said Jean-Noel Barrot, France’s minister for digital affairs to CNBC, American business news channel and website, earlier today.
France has invested in an “entire sector of electric batteries,” according to Barrot, who also stated that the country will work to persuade Musk “that France is the best possible place in Europe to establish the next Tesla factory.”
Musk expressed confidence that Tesla would make “significant investments” in France in the future when he met Macron and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on May 15 but did not give a timeframe.
Despite prior efforts by France to persuade Musk to do so, the tech entrepreneur has so far only built one gigafactory in Europe, in Germany.
