Photo: YouTube / VideoFromSpace
Before settling for Berlin, Germany for the first European Gigafactory, Tesla was seriously considering the UK as a possible location. According to Elon Musk, with Brexit, all expansion plans here fell through.
However, they were never fully abandoned, according to a new report in the British publication Property Week. Tesla is still shopping around for a possible location for what could be another Gigafactory or a research center of some sorts.
“The government is working with industry to help make the UK the location of choice to develop world-class electric vehicle technologies. DIT [Department for International Trade] is working closely with partners to scope out sites for new investment into electric vehicle research, development, and manufacturing across the UK,” the publication notes.
The report doesn’t say anything about what that facility could be for. It does say this, though: one potential location is in Somerset, in southwestern England, where a 650-acre industrial park is available. If Tesla does end up buying it, the facility would be bigger than the existing ones in China and California, but smaller than the one now underway in Germany.
However, as to the chances of this ending up as a Gigafactory, they’re probably slim to none. Tesla has been having a good couple of years (the international health crisis notwithstanding), but a second facility for the European market seems a stretch even in this context. It’s more likely that this will be a research center or a battery facility.
Whereas Tesla fans could always count on Elon Musk to offer additional details or clarification on many reports circulated online, no such luck this time. The Tesla CEO is taking some time off Twitter, and the ongoing George Floyd civil unrest, which has gripped all U.S. states and expanded internationally, could be the reason.
“The government is working with industry to help make the UK the location of choice to develop world-class electric vehicle technologies. DIT [Department for International Trade] is working closely with partners to scope out sites for new investment into electric vehicle research, development, and manufacturing across the UK,” the publication notes.
The report doesn’t say anything about what that facility could be for. It does say this, though: one potential location is in Somerset, in southwestern England, where a 650-acre industrial park is available. If Tesla does end up buying it, the facility would be bigger than the existing ones in China and California, but smaller than the one now underway in Germany.
However, as to the chances of this ending up as a Gigafactory, they’re probably slim to none. Tesla has been having a good couple of years (the international health crisis notwithstanding), but a second facility for the European market seems a stretch even in this context. It’s more likely that this will be a research center or a battery facility.
Whereas Tesla fans could always count on Elon Musk to offer additional details or clarification on many reports circulated online, no such luck this time. The Tesla CEO is taking some time off Twitter, and the ongoing George Floyd civil unrest, which has gripped all U.S. states and expanded internationally, could be the reason.
Off Twitter for a while
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 2, 2020
Google News