Tesla is reportedly looking at building an electric vehicle (EV) production plant in Thailand, according to Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.
As reported by Reuters, Tesla CEO Elon Musk met with the Thai Prime Minister in New York after attending the UN General Assembly to discuss the EV industry, among other topics.
Mr Thavisin reportedly met with a number of other technology executives as well in New York, and later back in Bangkok.
Model 3
The Thai Prime Minister told Reuters he expects Tesla, Microsoft, and Google to invest US$5 billion (~A$7.8 billion) in the country.
“Tesla would be looking into an EV manufacturing facility, Microsoft and Google are looking at data centres,” Mr Thavisin said to Reuters.
Tesla only started selling the Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles in Thailand in late 2022, with deliveries commencing earlier this year.
Model Y
At this stage it’s unclear if or when ‘Tesla Gigafactory Thailand’ could be constructed, nor when EVs will start to be produced there.
Thailand is Asia’s fourth-largest vehicle assembly hub. The South East Asian country has been offering incentives to EV and battery producers, as well as tax cuts to local EV buyers.
This isn’t the first time a South East Asian country has been tipped to get a Tesla production plant. Mr Musk met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this year, suggesting a Gigafactory may be on the cards.
Gigafactory Nevada
Tesla plans to ramp up vehicle production to 20 million vehicles per year by 2030, and in order to do this it’ll need to construct a number of new plants to make this happen.
The company currently produces cars in the US, China and Germany, and confirmed earlier this year it will also open a plant in Mexico.
