France’s President Emmanuel Macron said he will meet with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday to promote France as a possible site for one of the electric vehicle (EV) maker's factories as well as to discuss tech regulation.
France has been courting Chinese EV giant BYD and Tesla to build factories in the country, officials had previously told Reuters but are competing with other EU countries such as Spain, which is in talks with Tesla too.
"We're going to talk about artificial intelligence, in which he is involved, social media, regulation framework... And then I'll also talk to him about cars, batteries, to promote French and European attractiveness," Macron said.
France has been catching up with other European nations in its goal to become a hub for the electric vehicle industry, thanks to generous subsidies and a more business-friendly environment and aggressive lobbying since Macron took power.
Musk, who met Macron and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on May 15, mentioned then that he was confident Tesla would make "significant investments" in France in the future, but did not provide a timeline.
France previously tried to convince Musk to build a gigafactory in the country, but he chose Germany for his only such plant in Europe so far.
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