Following the offhand comments that Tesla CEO Elon Musk made about possibly opening a production facility in Alsace when speaking in France recently, a number of French entrepreneurs have decided to launch a campaign to try to lure the noted electric vehicle manufacturer to do exactly that, according to recent reports.
In particular, the French communications agency Blackblitz Strassbourg decided to create a new video highlighting the reasons why creating a production facility in Alsace, France, would be beneficial.
“We had heard of Elon Musk, who said he planned to settle on Alsace, and we decided to make a promotional video, a project totally free from coercion, jumping on the subject,” stated Blackblitz Strassbourg partner Greg Matter, in an interview with Agence France Presse.
Worth noting is that the Tesla used in the video is owned by a local businessman, and, perhaps more importantly, that the bank that owns the loan on the Tesla bankrolled the video production. I wonder why? 🙂
“Now we bet on the magic of social networks to reach Elon Musk,” Matter continued. He apparently sent the video directly to Elon Musk (via Twitter) himself.
Teslarati provides more:
Alsace is a region that has been fought over in two world wars and seen occupation by both France and Germany. The inhabitants there trace their lineage to both countries and most are fully bilingual. If half the factory could be in Germany and half in France, that would be the best of all possible worlds, Musk said.
…French news site Essential picked up the story and reports that Jean Rottner, the mayor of Mulhouse in the Alsace region, retweeted the link to the video to the French ministers of the economy and the environment: “@Emmanuel Macron @RoyalSegolene We are ready! And you? Support the #Alsace.”
While there’s likely some possibility that Tesla will eventually bring production to the region, something tells me that the company’s decision-making processes rely on more than just the viewing of videos like the one above.