Tesla’s next Gigafactory in Asia could be in South Korea

Tesla CEO Elon Musk discussed Tesla’s plan for its next Gigafactory in Asia with South Korea’s president – hinting that the country could be on the shortlist.

Tesla aims to increase its production capacity from currently roughly 2 million vehicles per year to 20 million vehicles per year by the end of the decade.

To make the ambitious goal possible, Tesla expects that it will need about eight new Gigafactories.

In order to have eight new vehicle factories running in about eight years, the automaker needs to get going and start announcing some locations in order to start building soon since it generally takes a few years to get a factory up and running.

CEO Elon Musk has previously indicated that Tesla should announce its next Gigafactory location by the end of the year, and he has talked about the next one being in North America.

There has been strong evidence that Tesla is seriously considering locations in Canada. There is also a rumor with some supporting evidence about a potential factory in Mexico.

But Tesla has also talked about building a new Gigafactory in Asia, and now we learn that Musk has discussed those plans with Yoon Suk Yeol, president of South Korea, in a recent virtual meeting.

The discussion between Musk and Yoon was revealed by the President’s office, and while a transcript is not available, they did disclose some topics of discussion (via Bloomberg):

• Musk said Tesla considers South Korea as a top candidate for investment.
• Yoon listened to Musk’s plan to construct another gigafactory in Asia to make electric cars.
• Musk also expressed willingness to actively invest in EV charging infrastructure in South Korea.
• Tesla is looking to expand supply chain cooperation with Korean companies.

South Korea has been a good car market for Tesla’s electric vehicles. and the company also has deep ties with LG and Samsung, two giant South Korean companies.