It looks like Tesla will be expanding its manufacturing in South Korea after Elon Musk met with the country's president, Yoon Suk Yeol. The two met during President Yoon's state visit to the US, discussing the EV manufacturer's potential in South Korea.
Tesla Manufacturing in South Korea
According to President Yoon's senior economic secretary Choi Sang-mok, Musk himself requested the meeting. As the two spoke, the South Korean president expressed that his country was an ideal location for a Tesla gigafactory.
South Korea has the resources for it such as cutting-edge industrial robots and high-skilled workers, as mentioned in Yahoo, which complements a business like a massive factory for electric vehicle manufacturing very well.
There's a real possibility that Tesla would invest in building a gigafactory in the country. If that should happen, the South Korean leader will actively support the company with location, human resources, as well as taxes.
President Yoon and Musk had already met back in November 2022, although it was only through a virtual meeting. The Tesla CEO intends to visit South Korea, perhaps to scout locations for the potential factory.
Elon Musk also has plans to build factories in other locations like Mexico, Canada, and Indonesia. A factory in South Korea will be a huge step for the EV company especially since Musk claims that it's one of the top candidates for gigafactory locations.
The company will certainly need more factories if it plans to achieve its expansion goal for its sales by 50% every year. Tesla's objective is to sell 20 million EVs in 2030. Although it sounds ambitious, it might just be possible considering the evident shift of vehicles to electric engines.
As pointed out by Electrek, you will need several factories to be able to produce the necessary parts to supply that number of vehicles. Given that East Asia holds half of the world's population, establishing a new gigafactory can arguably be a good move.
Tesla already has a factory in Shanghai, and although it's near Korea, Tesla might have a better relationship with South Korea's industry, especially since President Yoon says the country will be working on the improvement of regulations to make foreign investments easier.
South Korea Fined Tesla Months Ago
Although Elon Musk and the South Korean president seem to be seeing eye to eye regarding business for Tesla, the EV manufacturer has been fined by the country's regulator for reportedly exaggerating the capabilities of its vehicles.
The antitrust regulator claims that it will impose a 2.85 billion won or 2.2 million dollars for failure to disclose that Tesla has a shorter driving range in colder temperatures. According to CNBC, the driving range is cut by 50.5% as opposed to what is said online.
The company does acknowledge that there are differences in the EV's performance based on temperature by advising drivers to use the Energy app to monitor consumption and pre-conditioning the car with external power sources. It did not mention the significant loss in driving range.
