Elon Takes Berlin: Plans for Tesla Plant Jostle German Car Industry

Elon Musk has been receiving a lot of mail from Germany lately, with government ministers trying to flatter the tech entrepreneur in an effort to promote their states. Almost as soon as the Tesla CEO announced his intention to build a "Gigafactory" in Europe, German state governments began courting Musk like a horde of real estate agents eying a very solvent potential customer. "Lower Saxony," Bernd Althusmann (CDU), the economics minister of that state, wrote, "is one of the world's top regions in the automotive industry." He argued that "trans-European transport routes" cross through it and that the state is leading the way in terms of "electromobility, traffic telematics and autonomous driving." The minister, whose state is home to Volkswagen, said he would be pleased to explain all the advantages "in a personal conversation." Berlin Economics Senator Ramona Pop of the Green Party wrote that the German capital city has "numerous test tracks for autonomous driving" and is the "German hotspot for international companies."