what future for Tesla in Europe?

According The Wall Street Journal, the boss of the American manufacturer of luxury electric cars, Elon Musk, suspends his project to build his mega-factory of electric batteries in Europe. The business daily is affirmative, Tesla makes no comment but does not deny; as for the German authorities, they confirm having received the first information in this regard. We clearly see a bundle of converging elements that leaves no doubt about the intentions of the American billionaire.

The American manufacturer inaugurated a car production site near Berlin in March, from which 1,000 “Model Y” vehicles are produced per week. Elon Musk wanted to add, right next to it, a gigafactory (a giant factory) of electric batteries to equip the cars built on site. It is this project that Musk seems determined to suspend.

At least in August, the American administration adopted a text which provides tax incentives for car manufacturers if the batteries are manufactured and assembled in the United States. The law also provides for a subsidy for the purchase of an electric vehicle of up to 7,500 euros provided that the final assembly of the cars is carried out in North America.

It is therefore this new American regulation that compromises Elon Musk’s projects – in Europe in general, and in Germany in particular – because his ambition was to build cars entirely on the Old Continent to win the European market, with the possibility to export to the United States. Washington comes to cut his wings.

The group is therefore in the process of studying the implication of the new texts in its European strategy so as not to lose competitiveness. Elon Musk finds himself in a way a victim of “America First”, America first, so dear to former President Donald Trump and taken over by his successor Joe Biden in the name of American interests.