A negotiating videoconference between Elon Musk and the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), would have ended up concluding the hard-fought negotiations to rescue the project to install a new Tesla Motors plant in the country.
All after a lapse of a few hours in which the now richest man in the world would simply abandon the project and take the factory to another nation, if his basic logistical demands were not respected, which apparently tried to be conditioned by the president.
Moments of high tension have been experienced in Mexico after the dispute and political pressure generated after the emergence of a project where the country would be the object of a strong investment by Tesla Motors and Elon Musk.
Under the goal of optimizing its production processes and reducing its dependence on Asia for the manufacture of its manufacturing assets, the automotive company would have started talks to settle in the north of the Mexican nation.
How the project of the new Tesla plant in Mexico almost collapsed
Everything followed its relative natural order, with Tesla looking for the ideal place to settle in the area, obeying its logistics and basic geography needs, when the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador sought to impose entities in the extreme south of the country as sites for investment.
His native Tabasco, the immediate vicinity of the new AIFA airport of which he also imposed its construction and other locations thousands of kilometers from the border with the United States were his proposals.
[ AMLO negará permisos a Tesla si se instala en Nuevo León por falta de recursos ]
A public contest was opened where various states applied to host the factory, although it seems that the negotiations from the beginning were practically closed with the entity of Nuevo León.
It was there, at its climatic point, that AMLO stated that simply the permits to settle would not be granted by their federal government if that state, coincidentally governed by a local opposition party, was chosen.
The initial argument is that the lack of water in the region would be the blocking factor of the project in that area, although the Governor of the state, Samuel García, he claimed that the type of water needed by the plant did not represent a problem for the real reserves of his entity.
It was at that point that Elon Musk and company would have decided to take the project to another country if the political and administrative channels were not opened to settle.
Tesla does go to Mexico after call between Elon Musk and AMLO
A report from the Spanish newspaper The country assures that Elon Musk had a video call with President López Obrador where they would have finally negotiated everything to be able to build a plant on national territory:
“Sources close to the negotiation process have confirmed to EL PAÍS that the magnate has reached an agreement with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to build an electric car plant.”
The details of the agreement would be released this week by one of the two parties. In the case of AMLO, probably in the morning conference that he has every day and with Musk at the Tesla Investor’s Day scheduled for this March 1, 2023.
Although some details have apparently already leaked, since the newscast Latinus In his nightly broadcast on February 27, Musk has reportedly raised the ultimatum of leaving the country to negotiate and thus agree to effectively open the plant in Nuevo León.
But under the promise of creating a battery factory for their cars near the AIFA airport, fulfilling the president’s intentions.
The latter is a report that would not be confirmed until one of the two parties provides its official statement on this controversy.