Tesla has cancelled plans to set up an EV factory in Thailand, Malaysia or Indonesia and will instead just focus solely on setting up charging stations. This is according to The Nation, which quoted a source from the Thai government.
The decision to scrap ASEAN factory plans follows a layoff of the team of Tesla executives that visited Thailand late last year. “Tesla is currently only discussing charging stations, with the factory plans suspended not just in Thailand but worldwide. They are not proceeding in Malaysia, Indonesia, or anywhere else except for China, America, and Germany,” the source told the English-language publication.
Thai prime minister Srettha Thavisin declared in November 2023 that Tesla was set to make Thailand an EV manufacturing hub, saying so after he held several meetings with Tesla executives, both in Thailand and the US. Srettha also toured Tesla’s Fremont factory went he went to the US for the 30th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in November (pics below).
Back in Thailand, Srettha and Pheu Thai party leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of Thaksin, hosted senior Tesla executive Rohan Patel at the Yi Peng festival in Chiang Mai in the same month. He was then reported as saying that the Elon Musk-led carmaker was surveying three potential factory sites in the kingdom and was expected to announce investments of over US$5 billion (RM22.5 billion) in Q1 2024.
According to the government source, Tesla has decided to cancel such plans and has disbanded that particular executive team. The decision is part of the EV specialist’s withdrawal of investment across Asia and beyond. So, the ASEAN race to lure Tesla’s business for both economic and bragging rights reasons is over, but was Tesla’s plan to build in our region that serious in the first place?
A gigafactory that has been left hanging is Mexico, even though that one – unlike ASEAN – was official. First announced in March 2023, the project has faced delays and uncertainty, among them US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s pledge to impose a 100% tariff on cars made in Mexico, which is seen as a tax-free backdoor. In October 2023, Tesla confirmed it had paused the project due to economic concerns.
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To be frank there’s no way Tesla can compete in ASEAN against the onslaught of Chinese cars, and against their profit nosedive it doesn’t make sense to invest in a losing war which will just see them slash prices just to sell cars here.
let’s sell Tesla Solar, Powerwall and Charging @ Malaysia
The next wave will be hybrids for SEA..
EV has hit a roadblock, Tesla is struggling and China EV is over capacity..
Meanwhile Toyota is enjoying it’s best sales ever with their hybrid line up..
Elon M and Donald T has alternative plan
so just like that tengku zafrul kena con into lifting AP requirement from tesla with promise of fake investment…… hahahhahahahha!!!
Musky guy will do and say anything to boost share price and many people falls prey to it because he is “Richest person in the world”.
This includes anyone that bought Tesla car. Unless the rich that won’t mind losing lots of money because they can afford it, normal fanboys will have a big issue when the car needed repairs and there is no parts, no specialist or when insurer decided to compensate the ‘Peanut” current value and scrap the car due to extremely high repair cost.
On one hand you want investment from the US, then you stab their back by joining BRICS. You can’t have the cake and eat it too. With the impending social media companies debacle, you can say goodbye to all the investment announce previously.
not surprising, since Tesla is not doing well now anyway. Man-child Elon is more interested in X than in his other ventures