Advertisement

South Korea's Yoon ready to offer benefits for Tesla gigafactory

STORY: Yoon held a video call with Tesla chief executive Elon Musk last week when Yoon's office cited Musk as saying South Korea is among the top candidate locations for a factory to build electric vehicles.

"If Tesla, SpaceX or other companies are considering more investment in Korea including constructing a gigafactory, the government will do our best to support the investment," Yoon told Reuters in his office.

Yoon mentioned ensuring regulations align with international standards so foreign firms do not face unexpected financial and regulatory hurdles, as well as offering highly skilled workers.

"We are preparing a tailored approach to grant some advantages to these specified companies," Yoon said through an interpreter, when asked about what advantage South Korean can offer to Tesla over other locations being mentioned.

Tesla has said it would consider building another gigafactory. While Canada, Indonesia, India and Thailand have been mentioned in media reports, analysts noted that those countries do not have the kind of automotive supply chain that South Korea does, although some have abundant natural resources like nickel.

Yoon credited his government's tough response to major labor union strikes this year for starting the process of establishing the rule of law in industrial relations for both the management and labor.