This post was originally published on this site
Reuters Tesla CEO Elon Musk
There are certainly good reasons for picking Germany, and Berlin in particular, as a site for a battery plant and a research-and-development center for Tesla Inc.
But in a quick interview with Auto Express, Tesla TSLA, +1.40% co-founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk made clear why he didn’t consider the U.K.
“Brexit made it too risky to put a Gigafactory in the U.K.”
Musk didn’t elaborate. A reporter for the BBC, Faisal Islam, tweeted that one issue Brexit raises for Tesla in particular is whether parts produced in the U.K. would qualify as E.U. content.
Related: Elon Musk says Tesla will build gigafactory near Berlin
The U.K. seems likely to pursue a path of Brexit, as election polls show the Conservatives with a sizeable lead over Labour. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has reached an exit agreement with the European Union that has yet to be ratified by the U.K. Parliament.
