Mexico City.- Virtual president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum warned that since Tesla announced a Gigafactory in Mexico there has not been much progress.
Sheinbaum said that, for this reason, it is necessary to see if the pause at the plant in Nuevo León actually has to do with Donald Trump’s warnings.
Or, he said, for other reasons within the company itself.
“We have to look at the issue of Tesla in Mexico because, in reality, since the announcement was made until now, there has not been much progress,” he said.
“It remains to be seen whether the reason is really the election and what Trump said during his presidential campaign, or whether there may be other reasons specific to Tesla.
Tesla’s announced Gigafactory in the municipality of Santa Catarina has been put on hold by Elon Musk, CEO of the electric car manufacturer.
“We’re pausing the Gigafactory in Mexico. I think we’ll have to see where we’re going to be after the (US) elections,” Musk said on Tuesday.
“Trump has said he will impose heavy tariffs on vehicles produced in Mexico, so it would not make sense to invest heavily in Mexico.”
Plans to build the plant were officially announced on March 1, 2023 during Tesla’s Investor Day.
At that time, a $5 billion investment project was announced in Santa Catarina to produce the Model 2, a car that would cost about $25,000.
Claudia Sheinbaum agreed with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that the possible imposition of tariffs on the export of vehicles or auto parts would cause an increase in car prices in the United States.
“Because the cost of production in Mexico is lower than the cost of production in the United States for various reasons,” argued Sheinbaum.
“That’s why he (the president) says: one thing is what is said during the campaign and another is what is actually going to be done.”
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