An increase in investment in green technology, and the fallout from U.S. tariffs on the European green technology sector, were the highlights of talks between Elon Musk and President Macron Monday, May 15th, as the Twitter executive travelled to the Elysee Palace.
The billionaire arrived in Paris as part of Macron’s ‘Choose France’ initiative, with Musk confirming that Tesla and French officials had been in talks for enhanced investment for over a year.
The Tesla chief and Twitter executive incurred the wrath of European regulators recently for his libertarian approach to content regulation. EU’s rollout of the Digital Services Act, meant to combat hate speech, put Twitter and the European Commission on a collision course.
Musk travelled to the Palace of Versailles after talks with the French President where he mingled with industrialists from across the world, including the heads of Indian telecoms giant Bharti Enterprises and Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark.
The French government is hoping to assuage doubts over the country’s competitiveness, heightened after months of protests over pension reform, with business leaders pledging €13 billion in investment.
Macron is seeking to buttress his native car industry in a market surrounded by protectionist measures from the United States exacerbated by an existential crisis for the European electric car industry, never mind a looming schism with China.
Macron was pitching France as the future location for Tesla factories while Musk met with French finance minister Bruno Le Maire to inquire about financial incentives for new projects. There is growing speculation that Tesla will open a manufacturing facility at a former nuclear power plant in eastern France; the Macron administration is anxious to provide sweeteners to nail down the deal.
Tesla cut European prices on charging this week, leaving the car manufacturing brand expecting to emerge as a serious kingmaker from the electric car revolution. This comes despite studies that point to consumer affordability issues with electric cars and the continent’s overdependence on Chinese imports for green technology.
The European auto industry has been rattled recently by the offshoring of electric car production to America. Tesla decided to slash manufacturing in Germany last February, lured back to the U.S. by American subsidies. The European electric car sector is under pressure from the Biden administration who last year passed landmark protectionist legislation to ensure American dominance of the green tech sector. Macron visited America late last year to lobby against the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) which promises grants to electric car manufacturers only if they use American parts.
Europe fears that it will be left behind in the race to dominate the decarbonised economy, even though a dispute continues to grow among the EU member states over the prohibition of new fossil-fueled powered cars.
