2023-09-20 23:36:03
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal quoted informed sources as saying that Saudi Arabia is holding talks in the early stages with the American electric car manufacturer Tesla to establish a factory in the Kingdom.
This report comes hours after the Turkish Presidency’s Communications Department announced that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked Tesla CEO Elon Musk to build a factory for the company in Turkey.
Musk is also scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in California on Monday.
The newspaper stated in its report that Saudi Arabia is trying to attract Tesla by granting it the right to purchase certain quantities of the minerals and metals it needs from countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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The Kingdom is trying to diversify its economy so that it does not depend on oil alone, and the Saudi sovereign wealth fund is the largest investor in Lucid Group, one of the emerging electric car companies looking to challenge Tesla’s dominance of the sector.
The Wall Street Journal report stated that one of the proposals being considered by the Kingdom includes providing financing to the giant commodity trading company Trafigura to implement a faltering cobalt and copper project in Congo that would help supply the potential Tesla factory with supplies.
A Trafigura spokesman said the company is considering its options for the Motoshi project in Congo amid rising costs and continuing low cobalt prices.
Tesla or the Saudi Ministry of Information have not yet responded to requests from Archyde.com for comment, while the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi sovereign fund, declined to comment.
Musk said in May that Tesla may choose a location for a new factory by the end of 2023. The company currently has six factories and is building a seventh in Mexico with the aim of expanding its global presence. The company aims to sell 20 million cars annually by 2030, up from about 1.3 million in 2022.
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