This is not the first time that Elon Musk has spoken of Canada as part of his expansion plans for “Gigafactories”, his mega-assembly factories. Last week, Tesla’s big boss told the company’s annual shareholder meeting that an announcement about the next mega-factory could be made later this year.
Asked about the location, Musk asked his audience where it should be built. And after a group of shareholders were heard shouting ‘Canada’, Musk mentioned that ‘we have a lot of Canadas here’ and that ‘I’m half Canadian, maybe I should.’
Earlier this year, in June, Musk said Tesla was considering sites in North America, but likely not in the United States.
And now, last month, Tesla Inc registered its lobbying activities with the Ontario government as part of an effort to establish an “advanced manufacturing facility” in Canada, and “identify opportunities for permits for industrial installations. The filing was made with the Office of the Integrity Commissioner of Ontario.
Although everything seems vague and open to interpretation (as is often the case at Tesla), these steps constitute another step towards an Ontario mega-factory, which would be added to the two factories in the United States, the one in Germany and that in China.
With supply issues that have hampered the industry in recent years, coupled with a tense global political climate, U.S. EV makers are scrambling to diversify their sources of supply to reduce their dependence on certain countries and manufacturers for batteries and other components.