Elon Musk Discusses Potential Tesla Factory in South Africa Amid Starlink Expansion Talks

South Africa may soon be home to a Tesla electric vehicle factory, according to recent reports.

Electrek reported that Tesla CEO Elon Musk met with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday to discuss introducing the Starlink service operated by SpaceX. Musk requested that Ramaphosa ease regulations so that Starlink could operate in South Africa, which requires foreign companies to have at least 30% black ownership to provide telecommunications services.

The two men are believed to have discussed building a Tesla battery factory in South Africa as part of a deal to encourage Starlink operations in the country. Tesla currently produces its own battery cells at its Texas Gigafactory, but production is limited and has struggled to scale up.

Tesla has been rumored to be building a factory in South Africa since 2016, but there has been no significant progress so far. If Musk proposed building a Tesla factory to operate Starlink, he could raise interesting questions about operations between companies, the outlet reported.