The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has extended an invitation to Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, to consider the possibility of establishing an electric vehicle manufacturing facility in the country. While the outcome of this proposal remains uncertain, Turkey is eager to compete for Tesla’s attention along with other nations vying to host new Tesla factories, including India.
The meeting between Erdoğan and Musk took place during Erdoğan’s visit to the United States for the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Apart from Erdoğan’s request for a Tesla factory, the details of their conversation have not been disclosed.
It’s worth noting that Tesla, the world’s leading electric vehicle manufacturer, already has six production facilities globally and has committed to establishing its next Gigafactory in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo León. Elon Musk had previously stated in May that the location for the next factory would be selected by the end of the year, with India being a strong candidate.
Additionally, Israel has also entered the competition to host a Tesla factory. Musk met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Fremont facility in California, where they discussed topics like artificial intelligence, Twitter, social unrest in Israel, and measures needed in a world where robots could potentially understand power, and deepfakes could confuse unsuspecting individuals.
Although the existing Tesla factories are not operating at their full capacity, the company may require additional manufacturing facilities due to the production of the Semi, Cybertruck, the Optimus robot, and the upcoming two-seater robotaxi, which would occupy a significant amount of space in the existing facilities.
