Jakarta –
A report says so Tesla Inc. will soon establish an electric car factory in Indonesia. CEO Elon Musk responded to the news immediately.
In his response to a Twitter user’s tweet, Elon Musk asked to be careful of articles mentioning anonymous sources. Such sources are often judged to be wrong.
“Please be careful when writing articles citing ‘anonymous sources’ as they are often wrong,” Elon Musk tweeted on Thursday (12/1/2023).
Earlier in the report BloombergAccording to an unnamed source, Tesla is close to an initial deal to build a factory in Indonesia. The manufacturing plant will reportedly have a capacity of 1 million cars a year.
Investment Minister / BKPM Chief Bahlil Lahadalia said talks with Tesla headed by Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Panjaitan. Unfortunately, it was not specified how the discussion progressed.
It is known that Indonesia has long courted Tesla. As of August 2022, Tesla was said to have signed a contract worth about US$5 billion, or IDR 77 trillion (IDR 15,400 exchange rate), to purchase battery materials from a nickel processing company in Indonesia.
In an interview that month, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) wanted Tesla produce electric cars nationwide, not just batteries. The number one person in Indonesia is even willing to take the time to convince Elon Musk that he sees Indonesia as more than a major supplier of resources.
If this deal goes through, the factory in Indonesia will be Tesla’s third factory outside its home market, the United States (US). While Indonesia offers a potential 675 million consumers in Southeast Asia, Indonesia is seen as a tough market for global automakers because major car sales generally cost less than $20,000 or the equivalent of 308 million rupees.
During Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting last August, Elon Musk expected the company to build 10-12 factories globally. Last year, Tesla was also in final talks to build an electric vehicle assembly plant in Mexico.
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