Elon Musk fears Trump and stops Giga Mexico

Tesla CEO says Republican victory hurts electric cars and halts construction of factory in Mexico

Tesla Gigafactory Mexique

By: Francesco Barontini

Published by: Brian Potter

Jul 27, 2024 at 3:02am ET

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Tesla does not support Donald Trump. On the contrary, the brand fears him. CEO Elon Musk has denied reports in recent days that he is creating a fund to finance the Republican presidential candidate. The truth is, however, that the matter is still very much up in the air, and the Wall Street Journal continues to support this theory.

Be that as it may, the latest news on the US elections is as follows: Tesla is halting construction of the Gigafactory in Mexico precisely because it fears that Trump will win the election and, once in the White House, reduce support for the green transition.

Better to think about Robotaxis and Optimus

Tesla announced that the new factory in Mexico would be built in March 2023 and, given how quickly the US company is able to set up a factory, it was expected that work would be completed and operations would start relatively quickly.

Photos - The Tesla Bot at AI Day

Then things changed. Sales of electric cars have slowed and Tesla has decided to postpone certain projects (the restyling of the Model Y and above all the Model 2) in order to concentrate on activities with greater potential, such as the Robotaxi, expected on 10 October, and the Optimus humanoid robot.

A new President expected

The Mexican plant could also run into other problems. Trump has announced on several occasions that he also wants to impose tariffs on cars produced in Mexico and destined for the US market.

It is clear that this decision would considerably reduce the profitability of the Gigafactory, which is supposed to be built near the city of Monterey and which would establish itself as the largest car factory in the world. The best thing to do, therefore, is to postpone any decision until after the elections.

Tesla Giga Texas (Gigafactory 5) - Quality Control Model Y (Tesla report Q3 2021)

Tesla Model Y production lines

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Meanwhile, the Roadster...

Talk about a benchmark. Elon Musk recently reaffirmed that the Roadster would go into production in 2025. That would be nice, but the Tesla CEO has too often made promises that have not been kept.

The Roadster, in particular, was unveiled in 2017 and was originally due to hit the market in 2020. Four years have passed and there is still no certainty about the future of this model, which everyone involved believes will set new standards in terms of performance.

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