Tesla is rumored to host a visit from Canadian minister of industry amid factory talks

Tesla is rumored to be hosting a visit from Francois-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s industry and innovation minister, amid talks of the automaker building a factory in Canada.

Over the past few months, we have been reporting on mounting evidence that Tesla has been looking at a potential location in Canada for its next Gigafactory. Tesla plans to ramp up production to 20 million electric vehicles by the end of the decade, and it is expected to need about eight more Gigafactories to do it.

In June, Electrek obtained a recording of a companywide meeting held by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, during which he confirmed that Tesla is looking at factory sites in North America. The CEO also hinted at Canada being the location for Tesla’s next Gigafactory, which he says should be announced by the end of the year.

Musk teased a possible Canada factory again at Tesla’s annual shareholders’ meeting, and the company’s efforts were confirmed through a lobbying disclosure by the automaker with the Ontario government in Canada.

Last month, a local report stated that Tesla had visited Vale’s nickel operations in Canada and was scouting sites for a factory in Ontario and Quebec. We also reported that Tesla visited a graphite mining and processing company based in Quebec’s battery valley.

Finally, Quebec started to look like a likely location for a Tesla Gigafactory in Canada after we saw the automaker had posted a job listing for a high-volume recruiter, which generally means the company is looking to hire thousands of workers.

Last week, Francois-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s industry and innovation minister, confirmed that the government is talking to Tesla about the automaker establishing a factory in the country.

When Champagne confirmed talks with Tesla, he also said that he is talking to many other automakers. Yesterday, he was at the Detroit Auto Show, and in a post on Twitter he confirmed that he talked to GM, Stellantis, and Ford at the event:

But he also teased that he was going to California on Friday to “talk with another auto manufacturer to bring more investment, create jobs, and build an economy that works for everyone.”

Based on the recent talks and the fact that Tesla has a lot of operations in California, Tesla is rumored to be that automaker.

Electrek’s Take

With lobbying efforts and meetings, it looks like the negotiations are ramping up. I wouldn’t be surprised if an announcement is imminent.

As Tesla itself admitted, it needs eight more factories to achieve its goal to produce 20 million vehicles by 2030. It is going to need to start announcing some of them soon if it wants to make it happen.

Canada certainly appears to be the number-one contender at the moment.

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