Comments from two local officials indicate that Tesla (TSLA) is considering constructing a battery factory in Indonesia.
At the start of this month we wrote about Tesla is allegedly in talks with the Indonesian government to construct a brand new nickel enterprise in a rustic that has large nickel reserves.
Most recently, CEO Elon Musk appealed to mining corporations to extend nickel production.
Now we’ve learned that Tesla’s talks with Indonesia may very well be about constructing a full battery factory in that country.
– said Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang CNBC that the discussion with Tesla is “ongoing” regarding the battery factory:
Industry Minister (Menperin) Agus Gumiwang confirmed Tesla’s plan, said Tesla could be directed to construct a factory in Batang later. Currently, the discussion process between Tesla and the federal government remains to be ongoing.
This took place in Batang, a regency on the northern coast of Central Java Province in Indonesia.
Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan also commented on the situation and said that he told Tesla that it will secure its nickel reserves if it invested in constructing a battery factory within the country:
“I said today you will place an investment here and we will transfer the reserves. So if we always change z commodity base down. So we see production further down the supply chain. This will turn Indonesia into a great global supply chain country,” he added.
As we detailed in our previous report on Tesla’s interest in Indonesia, the country is one in all the world’s largest nickel producers, however it also recently introduced a ban on nickel ore exports to encourage the industry to process it locally.
Indonesia hopes the measure will encourage corporations to speculate in making finished products within the country using nickel, corresponding to batteries.
Last month on the Battery Day event, Tesla detailed its plan to extend its own battery cell production to 200 GWh of annual production capability in 2023 and three TWh in 2030.
This unprecedented level of battery production would require several factories all over the world and a posh global supply chain.
Source: This article was originally written by Fred Lambert (@FredericLambert) for electrorek.co
