Elon Musk says Tesla eyeing Russia as a potential production hub

Heh. Russia doesn't make anything. Would you buy a car made in Russia?

What the point of trying to sanction Russia when the US own businessmen keep pouring money into Russia?

@Hiro

The point of talking up sanctions is so that your competitors’ trade with the sanctioned or heavily criticized country will be reduced. Meanwhile your country continues to export and pick up the vacant market share.

This is an old play straight out of the US playbook. Other than soy beans (farmers take the fall), the US continues to conduct huge amount trade with China and will with Russia.

Dear @Elonmusk, we were delighted to learn that you are considering building a factory in Russia. By the way, we have a number of state support measures for local OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers). Come to see us, we'll talk about it:)," it said on social media in English.

........ and when you have everything up and running and we have the technology, we will nationalize your company and send you packing.

Next he'll build a rocket factory in NK =)

Why do these companies keep investing in these totalitarian regimes? Have they no shame?

@Laguna

Heh. Russia doesn't make anything. Would you buy a car made in Russia?

The biggest automaker in Russia is Hyundai/Kia. Both GM and Ford pulled out.

So no US automaker survived in Russia. Being a US automaker in Russia won't help either.

Not sure how that would go, but good luck.

Nice to see business between the countries is still running.

He needs to be stopped. US citizens shouldn't be allowed to invest in Russia or China. Musk will just leave the US, since he's stubborn that way.

OTOH, as a business owner, it is hard to get things done faster, at first, when the President of an authoritarian govt wants all the red-tape removed.

@Samit Basu i thought LADA was the largest car brand in Russia.

Why do these companies keep investing in these totalitarian regimes? Have they no shame?

$urely you mu$t know the an$wer to thi$ que$tion.

Why ?

Why in these commo countries ?

Didn't the CCP teach him a business lesson !

The supply chain will be extremely unreliable. I had clients try to run factories in Russia in the late 90s and 2000s. You'd open crates to find the contents replaced with rocks. Didn't matter if you personally picked them up from customs. It's not like there aren't good engineers and skilled workers. But the crime and theft is just too rampant.

Make the cars in an eastern country and ship them into Russia like everyone else.

........ and when you have everything up and running and we have the technology, 

His technology is open source.

What Musk doesn't understand is that the Russian oligarchs, Putin included, are thoroughly corrupt. Musk will learn what other Western manufacturers have learned, that the oligarchs only care about money and power, and not whether Tesla is able to have a presence in Russia.

Elon Musk says Tesla eyeing Russia as a potential production hub

I saw P and hub...........I misread the headline and got distracted. Please, carry on.

Go Musk!

Perhaps Mr. Musk should open a factory in his native South Africa. It is exactly the kind of industrial investment South Africa needs instead of another mine.

You wonder what Mr. Musk could possibly be thinking wanting to open a factory in Russia. Hasn't he taken enough of a beating in China? He doesn't want to deal with the sorts of due process that is part and parcel of western governments, is frustrated in the US and Germany having to justify his actions to local and state governments, pay attorneys to attend hearings, write briefs and environmental reviews, but he doesn't seem to know how to grease the right palms in China to get things done without due process. Why does he think it will go better in Russia? When you are a foreigner in both of those countries you do not get the benefit of the doubt.

Tesla one charge 560 km. The journey will need 16 full charges.

In the winter the battery heaters are going to use more than half the Tesla's charge. A friend has Tesla in Bend Oregon which is cold but nothing like Siberia and it is a problem he has to deal with.

I'm always surprise and amused by comments of people who know absolutely nothing about Russia (not even to place it on a map) and make comments about the country... So it's a totalitarian regime ? Wow interesting news...so if you don't like to deal with those who don't think the same, you'll have to stop also with those that are your friends, like Saudia Arabia, USA (after censorship against 50 % of their own population in the latest election), Qatar, China, Hungary (in Europe for those that had a doubt...), etc...

Hey Laguna ..nasa bought a heap of their rocket boosters lol.

Hey Laguna ..nasa bought a heap of their rocket boosters lol.

Actually Boeing bought them and they are mostly used to launch military payloads.

And just today it was announced that a Russian citizen is being deported after pleading guilty to trying to pay a Tesla employee to let him install ransomware in Tesla's IT system so he could rob them later. And yet Elon Musk wants to put a plant in ransomware central?

Elon Musk wants to put a plant in ransomware central?

Why wouldn't he?

Your comment is one that those who don't understand software development would make.

The vast distances in Russia make electric cars a tough sell.

The USA and Canada also have "vast distances" and they sell well there.

Your comment is one that those who don't understand software development would make.

I supposed I can elaborate on this comment. I'll start wiht an analogy - the government wants tech companies to create backdoors into software for when the government needs to get past the security.

But this is not a realistic possibility. Many people, from watching too many movies and episodes of CSI, think that there are levels of encryption, like 'military level encryption', but there aren't. All encryption is 'military level', and the entire internet is built upon it. If tech companies were to build a back-door to their software, it would require crippling the software into an insecure state, whether that be by lowering the complexity of the encryption, or providing a security hole as a means of getting around that encryption.

You see, each device is essentially it's own secure 'node' within the wild wild west of the internet. They have to be, or they're hacked faster than I can type out this post.

How does this relate to Tesla trusting to build their cars in a foreign nation? They have to make the factory a secure 'node' regardless of the country it is in. It doesn't matter if it's Russia, China, America or Norway. They will have the same level of protection and quality assurance regardless of the location of the plant. The exception would be a factory in a country like China, in which you're required to provide your IP (intellectual Property) as a requirement for doing business in the country. In such a case, one must willingly cripple their security for the Chinese government, as a requirement of doing business in China.

Oops, I forgot to make the first paragraph of that last post into a quote.

The USA and Canada also have "vast distances" and they sell well there.

In big cities. Not in the smaller towns spaced out across the intermountain west. Winters in places like the Great Basin, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Wyoming are very cold and towns far apart. Now you add in tire chain requirements on snowy days, and you are down to 50-65kph (32-40 mph) max or the chains will come off and damage the car as they do. In the winter in places like that your electric car might not have the range to make it to the next town. This is why hydrogen or ammonia as a motor fuel is still in play.