Where is the next Tesla mega factory planned? Canada may look to lure Elon Musk

Tesla is hunting new grounds to establish its next lineup of mega factories - called gigafactories by the electric vehicle (EV) maker. And with demand for EVs on the rise in North America, Tesla could look at Canada as the newest home for its next plant and has already started hunting for possible locations. The interest is from both sides with the Canadian government also reportedly willing to engage in talks.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk had previously confirmed that he intends to establish over a dozen factories across the world with the eventual aim of selling a humungous 20 million EVs each year by 2030. It is an ambitious plan considering around 6.5 million EVs were sold globally by all car makers combined in 2021. Of this, Tesla had a big share at just under one million. But both interest and demand is rising rapidly and Tesla wants to be in a position to deliver in order to maintain its sizeable lead against rivals in the EV space.

While Musk has hinted at a plant in Canada, a minister in the Canadian government too has revealed that talks with Tesla are underway. Francois-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s Industry and Innovation Minister, said he is talking to several automotive manufactures which includes Tesla.

Speculation is rife that Tesla could eventually home in on a site close to cities like Montreal, Ontario or Quebec, all cities with over 2.5 lakh inhabitants. The population size of a city is crucial for Tesla in order to ensure workforce demands are met. This is perhaps why all of the company's six plants at present are located in or near big cities - Fremont, Shanghai, Houston, New York, Berlin and in Nevada, near city of Reno.

The future factories of Tesla could be located in other geographic areas which may include the UK, Indonesia and somewhere in south-east Asia. There were reports that Tesla was even looking at entering the Indian market but the Indian government has made it amply clear that units imported from China won't be seen too kindly and that Tesla needs to establish production facilities in the country to compete here.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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