On Tuesday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that Tesla will build a factory in the city of Monterrey, Mexico’s industrial hub. The next day, during the Tesla Investor Day event in Austin, Texas, Elon Musk confirmed that Tesla has big plans and will build a Gigafactory in Mexico.
Jesus Nava, the mayor of Santa Catarina in the state of Nuevo León, told Reuters in an interview that Tesla is buying a site that covers nearly 4,200 acres of industrial land. That’s more than twice the size of Mexico City International Airport.
As claimed by Nava, Tesla will spend about $5 billion and hire about 5,000 people, which will later expand to $10 billion and up to 10,000 workers. Thereby this will be the world’s largest electric vehicle factory in Mexico.
According to Tom Zhu, who oversees Tesla’s U.S. factories and sales operations in North America and Europe, Tesla will attempt to break Giga Shanghai’s speed record when building the plant. The Tesla plant in Shanghai was completed in 9.5 months.
Jesus Nava said that in three months, the production of the plant in Mexico will begin, and then Tesla will reveal which cars will be manufactured there. Most likely, Tesla's next-generation vehicle platform will be built in Mexico first:
Also, Samuel García, the governor of the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, does not hide his excitement that Tesla chose Mexico:
“Tesla is coming to Nuevo León. Why shouldn’t we feel proud when everyone wanted this plant? China, Germany, England, Brazil, Canada and Mr. Musk chose Mexico.”
Why Mexico?
According to Bloomberg Línea, there are several factors that could have prompted Tesla to build a factory in Nuevo León, Mexico:
Mexico’s geographic location has always been considered one of the country’s main advantages in the world since it has easy access to the U.S. market.
Santa Catarina’s vocation is manufacturing, with companies producing products for the transportation and power generation sectors, as well as metals, household appliances, electronic equipment, food and beverages, and machinery and equipment.
There are already about 120 Tesla suppliers in Mexico, which arrived in Nuevo León in 2021, and some of which are located in Santa Catarina or in neighboring municipalities.
Mexico has a strong automotive industry and is a manufacturing powerhouse, as the seventh-largest vehicle manufacturer in the world and the largest in Latin America. It is the fourth-largest largest exporter of auto parts in the world and the leading supplier to the U.S. market.
On February 27, the Nuevo León government announced the creation of the Agency for the Promotion and Use of Renewable Energies, which is part of the government’s strategy to increase investments and grow the industry, but not at the expense of the environment.