(Reuters) – France wants Elon Musk-led Tesla to build its next gigafactory in the country, the country’s digital minister said, as President Emmanuel Macron prepared to meet Musk for the second time in just over a month.
France has been courting Chinese EV giant BYD and Tesla to build factories in the country, officials had previously told Reuters.
“It will be great to have a Tesla factory in France. There has been a lot of effort and energy to make sure this is possible and this can happen,” Jean-Noel Barrot told CNBC.
“We have also invested in an … entire sector of electric batteries so we will try to convince (Elon Musk) that France is the best possible place in Europe to establish the next Tesla factory,” Barrot said.
Musk, who met Macron and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on May 15, said back then he was confident Tesla would make “significant investments” in France in the future, but shied from providing a timeline.
Macron said on Wednesday he would meet Musk again on Friday.
France previously tried to convince Musk to build a European gigafactory in the country, but he chose Germany for his only such plant in Europe so far.
($1 = 0.9232 euros)
(Reporting by Michel Rose in Paris and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Silvia Aloisi)
