According to Yonhap news agency, South Korean President Yun Seok-yeol met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk by video on the 23rd and called on Tesla to invest in South Korea.
Yoon Suk-yeo heard about Tesla’s plan to build a super electric car production plant “Gigafactory” in Asia, and introduced the development environment and investment conditions of Korea’s auto industry to Elon Musk, and called on Tesla to invest in Korea. Yoon Seok-yul also mentioned the successful launch of Korea’s own launch vehicle, World, in June this year, and expressed his hope that SpaceX would cooperate with Korean space companies.
Elon Musk said he considers South Korea as one of the first places to invest and will consider the investment conditions such as human resources, technology level and production environment of the candidate countries in Asia and make relevant decisions. He said that Tesla’s self-driving and artificial intelligence-related departments use many high-quality Korean-made parts, and showed positive intentions to invest in the field of electric vehicle charging equipment in Korea. He also said that Tesla will strengthen its supply chain cooperation with Korean companies and expects that Tesla’s Korean-made parts procurement volume may exceed $10 billion next year.
Yoon Seok-yeol’s office said he said during the discussion that he would reform unreasonable regulations that hinder investment by global technology companies and that the government would continue its efforts to attract investment from high-tech companies to improve the country’s competitiveness.
The governments of Indonesia, India and other countries are already lobbying to win Tesla’s next investment in electric vehicle production. If Tesla builds a factory in South Korea, it could work closely with South Korean suppliers such as Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Innotek, analysts said.
