Tesla kills Spanish factory project after being angered by negotiation leaks

27 June 2023

Tesla has reportedly shelved plans to build a factory in Spain, more specifically in the Valencia region, due to an interesting reason. Apparently, the company was very angered by details about the negotiations with the regional government leaking earlier this month. Following those leaks, Tesla is now said to have killed the project altogether.

That's a pretty strong response to some leaks. The information allegedly comes from Ximo Puig, the President of the Valencian Government, according to a local publication. He told unnamed sources that the "internal leak" made Tesla "very angry".

This leak was judged by the car maker to be "a serious problem", serious enough to completely halt the negotiations. Local press publications in Valencia speculate that the leaks occurred from Puig's inner circle, and may have taken place as part of a larger political fight in the region.

Weirdly enough, while Elon Musk has recently met with European leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to talk about opportunities (read: possible subsidies) for Tesla in those countries, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez seems to have been ignored, instead the company starting negotiations directly with the Valencian regional government.

Whether that played a role in this debacle is unclear. What is pretty clear, at least according to the aforementioned (but unnamed) sources is that Valencia won't have a Tesla factory nearby anytime soon. And who knows, maybe France or Italy will benefit from the cancellation of Tesla's Spanish plans.

Source (in Spanish)