Tesla Never Committed to Opening Factory in Malaysia – Tengku Zafrul

Tesla is making headlines over the past few days since the US carmaker is reportedly abandoning its factory plans in Southeast Asia, with Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia as potential locations. Well, Investment, Trade, and Industry (MITI) Minister Tengku Zafrul has issued a response on the matter, clarifying that Tesla never committed to opening a factory in Malaysia.

In his statement, Zafrul says that MITI never made an announcement that Tesla will be opening a factory in Malaysia either. He further elaborated that the report of Tesla suspending its factory plans in Southeast Asia is based on an anonymous source instead of an official statement from Tesla itself.

“Journalists need to verify the authenticity of this news with Tesla,” he added.

Tanya Tesla.

Betul ke Tesla tak jadi bina kilangnya di Asia Tenggara?

Laporan ini diterbitkan oleh sebuah akhbar Thailand dan dipetik semula oleh akhbar negara kita.

Pertamanya, laporan tersebut bukanlah kenyataan rasmi Tesla, sebaliknya hanya memetik sumber yang anonymous… pic.twitter.com/fzMn0k0bwg
— Tengku Zafrul 🇲🇾 (@tzafrul_aziz) August 8, 2024

Previously, Thai daily The Nation quoted a source from the Thailand government that Tesla will only focus on building its network of charging stations in Thailand. “Tesla is currently only discussing charging stations, with the factory plans suspended worldwide. They are not proceeding in Malaysia, Indonesia, or anywhere else except for China, America and Germany,” said the source.

Of course, as mentioned by Zafrul, talks of a Tesla factory in Malaysia never came up previously, though it was announced that Tesla (and even SpaceX) has several large-scale investments lined up for the country. So far, Tesla continues to build its EV charging network in Malaysia with two showrooms already set up in Cyberjaya and Damansara Heights.