Tesla has put on hold plans to build a battery factory in Germany to see how the company can respond to new regulations on electric vehicle subsidies in the U.S., according to The Wall Street Journal.
Washington has indeed adopted in August a text providing tax incentives for manufacturers if the batteries are manufactured and assembled in the United States, recalls the economic daily in its Thursday edition.
The law also provides for a subsidy of up to $7,500 for the purchase of an electric vehicle, provided that the final assembly of the cars is done in North America and that the raw materials used for the batteries come, in an increasing proportion, from the same region.
However, Tesla had previously planned to build a battery factory in Germany, in addition to the car factory already installed near Berlin, with the possibility that some of them would be sent to the United States.
Elon Musk’s group is therefore studying the implications of the new American regulations and, in the meantime, is postponing its project in Germany, reports the Wall Street Journal, citing sources close to the case.
Tesla had not immediately responded to a request from AFP.
The electric vehicle manufacturer filed a brief with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts at the end of August, a few days after the law was passed in Washington, raising the possibility of building a lithium refinery in that state.
The finished product, lithium hydroxide, would be shipped by road and rail to various Tesla battery manufacturing sites in the U.S., the company said, as it seeks tax breaks to complete its project.
However, Tesla said it was still at the stage of “evaluating the feasibility of the project” and stressed that it was also studying the possibility of building a similar site in the state of Louisiana.
