According to the press agency Bloomberg, Tesla is eyeing Mexico – and not Canada – as the location for a new Gigafactory. As both partners are in the process of finalizing details, an official announcement is expected before New Year. The local Mexican newspaper Milenio confirms the reports.

The new Tesla factory is to be built in an industrial area in northeastern Mexico, in Santa Catarina near Monterrey, the capital of the province Nuevo Leon. CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, met with the governor of the province, García Sepúlveda, at the end of October. After the meeting, the governor hinted at the outcome of a Mexican Gigafactory by stating that ‘historic’ investments were about to happen.

Not Canada

Reportedly, Tesla has already acquired a patch of land in Mexico. But while scanning the public property register, Milenio didn’t find any confirmation of this.

Tesla is said to be in talks with the foreign relations ministry and the state government. Bloomberg cites sources “familiar with the automaker’s plans, who asked not to be identified.”

For a long time, speculations pointed at Canada as the place for a new Gigafactory. Ontario, more precisely, because of its proximity to the nation’s auto production hub and easy access to raw materials by rail.

Musk hinted himself to the country when discussing possible new factory locations at a shareholder’s meeting. “We get a lot of Canada. I am half-Canadian. Maybe I should?” he replied.

As for tax credit eligibility, Mexico or Canada doesn’t make any difference. Both countries comply with Biden’s Inflation Reduction act, solely lending subsidies to electric cars made in North America. Nuevo Leon is also home to factories from General Motors and Kia. Also, the Ford  Mustang Mach-E is built in Mexico.

3 000 per week

Tesla is renowned for rapidly expanding its new plant infrastructure and burning heaps of cash to ramp production up. But also the latter shows signs of improvement.

The carmaker announced new production rates for its factory in Texas, where 3 000 Model Y’s per week are produced, up from 1 000 per week in June.

The Gigafactory in Austin can now churn out 150 000 vehicles annually. Over in Europe, the Berlin site currently shifts 2 000 Model Y’s per week.

That is an impressive achievement since the factory only started production end of March, under conditions where supply chain hiccups were disrupting automotive production all over the globe.

The goal for Texas, however, was 5 000 vehicles per week by the end of 2022, as Tesla is readying an unprecedented ramp-up of its production in the United States.

The brand is on a production path doubling its total annual output to 2 million units. At full capacity, the Gigafactory in Texas is set to assemble 500 000 units annually.