Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Thursday that he will seek a meeting with Elon Musk to discuss Tesla’s plans for an electric vehicle plant in Mexico.
Asked in a radio interview whether he believed Tesla’s proposed gigafactory project near Monterrey, Nuevo León, wouldn’t go ahead due to Donald Trump’s victory in the United States presidential election, Ebrard said that Musk, Tesla’s CEO, “hasn’t told us anything.”
“… I’m going to arrange a meeting with him soon so that he tells me exactly what he’s thinking,” he said.
Ebrard said that the government will see what it can do to ensure that the multi-billion-dollar project goes ahead.
However, he added that it was “clear” that Tesla’s plans don’t “depend on the decisions we’re taking in Mexico, but rather the general situation of the company, which now has very strong competition from Chinese companies.”
That competition, especially from the Shenzhen-based electric vehicle manufacturer BYD, is “limiting” Tesla’s “capacity for investment in the short term,” Ebrard opined.
Musk, the world’s richest person, announced in March 2023 that Tesla would build a gigafactory in Santa Catarina, a Nuevo León municipality just west of Monterrey that borders Coahuila.
However, he said in July that the project was “paused” because of the possibility that Trump would impose tariffs on vehicles made in Mexico if he won the presidential election in the United States.
That possibility remains live, although it is conceivable that Musk — a massive donor to Trump’s campaign — could negotiate an exemption from any tariffs that a second Trump administration imposes on vehicles made in Mexico.
As things stand, vehicles made in Mexico can be exported tariff-free to the United States provided they meet regional content rules. However, Trump has made repeated threats to impose hefty tariffs on vehicles made in Mexico, and last month pledged to renegotiate the USMCA free trade pact.
After his election as the United States’ 47th president this week, President Claudia Sheinbaum declared that “there is no reason for concern” for Mexicans, including business people who may be concerned about tariffs. Sheinbaum previously said she considered U.S. tariffs on products made in Mexico “very unlikely.”
A decision by Tesla to forge ahead with its planned factory in Nuevo León would be a shot in the arm for the new federal government, which is seeking to capitalize on Mexico’s nearshoring opportunity.
Nuevo León Governor Samuel García said late last year that Tesla and its suppliers would invest a combined total of US $15 billion in the northern state.
Ebrard ‘optimistic’ about USMCA renegotiation
In separate remarks on Thursday, Ebrard said he was “optimistic” about the outcome of the USMCA review scheduled for 2026.
“I’m not saying it’s going to be easy because nothing is easy, but the relationship with President Trump and his government is going to be very good,” he told reporters in Mexico City after attending a retail industry meeting.
Ebrard, Mexico’s foreign minister during most of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s presidency, said that his confidence that the Mexican government will have a good relationship with the second Trump administration came from the fact that Mexico is the United States’ largest trade partner and that millions of jobs in the U.S. depend on exports to Mexico.
He highlighted that U.S. exports to Mexico increased more than 4% in the first nine months of the year, while Mexican exports to the United States increased 6.5%.
Ebrard stressed the importance of Mexico, the United States and Canada working together in order to compete with other regions of the world, such as Asia. He said last month that Mexico would “mobilize all legitimate interests in favor of North America” amid the ongoing trade war between the United States and China, which could escalate during Trump’s second term as U.S. president.
The economy minister said Thursday that tariffs on Mexican exports to the United States would only increase costs for U.S. consumers.
Ebrard looks set to play a key role in Mexico’s relationship with the United States during the second Trump presidency, which will commence Jan. 20. As foreign minister in the López Obrador administration, he dealt directly with Trump, including when Mexico was attempting to stave off a tariff threat in 2019.
Citing analysts, Reuters reported on Wednesday that Sheinbaum’s appointment of Ebrard as economy minister “was seen as a powerful signal that Mexico is readying itself with its best political firepower for the USMCA review.”
With reports from Radio Fórmula and El Financiero
