Tesla may build a Gigafactory somewhere in Germany, as CEO Elon Musk has been discussing the possibility with the German government in recent days, according to Bloomberg Business.
Musk has in the past stated that there would need to be hundreds or thousands of Gigafactories eventually, if electric vehicles (EVs) are going to replace gasmobiles, that is. Going by those statements, the news concerning a possible development in Germany isn’t surprising — especially as Tesla is expecting the country to be one of its bigger markets for energy storage products.
The country’s Economy Minister, Sigmar Gabriel, commented: “We’re in talks. I assume he will want public funds.” Bloomberg managed to get a comment from a Tesla spokesperson, by the name of Kathrin Schira, that stated that the company has “no current plans to build a battery factory in Germany.”
Teslarati provides more:
Germany is one of the countries that could benefit most from grid storage facilities. Like Australia and Hawaii, cost of electricity in the region is quite high. While we tend to focus mostly on the cars Tesla produces, Elon’s interest in developing renewable energy sources and battery storage systems, as made evident by the announcement of Tesla Energy, may be enough to justify building a second large-scale battery factory.
…With no further details forthcoming from the German government or Tesla, we have to assume that the talks between the two are only exploratory at the moment. But they do demonstrate that Tesla and Musk are always looking to the future and planning their next move in their ongoing campaign to break the world of its fossil fuel habit.
I would assume that the potential interest in developing a plant in Germany is accompanied by potential interest in a great many other countries as well. I’m thinking right now of all the rumors that we got concerning the location of the first Gigafactory. Until something solid is revealed, this is all just a possibility.