Musk slams WSJ report claiming he is in talks to build EV factory in Saudi Arabia
Elon Musk
Elon Musk has slammed the Wall Street Journal for its recent report claiming that the Tesla boss was currently in talks with Saudi Arabia to set up an electric vehicle factory in the kingdom.
Quashing the report, Musk took to X (formerly known as Twitter) and posted a screenshot of the article and captioned it as saying:"Yet another utterly false article from WSJ."
The publication earlier on Monday (September 18) carried a report titled - "Tesla, Saudi Arabia in Early Talks for EV Factory" wherein the claim was made, citing 'sources' familiar with the discussion.
"Saudi Arabia is in talks with Tesla about setting up a manufacturing facility there, people familiar with the discussions said, as part of an ambitious push by the kingdom to secure metals needed for electric vehicles and help diversify its economy away from oil,"read the article.
The report cited efforts by a Saudi state-backed investment fund to negotiate a deal to invest in the cobalt and lithium mines ofNamibia, Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo as the reason for the Musk-Kingdom connection.Additionally, the report came just hours after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked Musk to build a factory in Turkey.
Earlier this year, the kingdom'sMinistry of Investment signed a $5.6 billion deal withChinese electric car maker Human Horizon. Similarly,US-based Lucid Group announced last month that its first overseas plant in Saudi Arabia is set to start limited production of Lucid Air EVs, beginning this month.
The report, however, claimed that the talks between Musk and Saudi officials were at an early stage and could crumble.
"The talks are at a very early stage and could fall apart. Any deal could be fraught with complications, given Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk’s contentious relationship with the Saudis as well as the kingdom’s existing partnership with the company’s electric-vehicle rival Lucid Group," the report added.
Watch |Tesla creates a secret team to suppress driving range complaints
Musk-WSJ quarrel
Notably, this is not the first instance when Musk has had a go at the Journal for its reports. Last year, after the publication carried a report claiming that Musk had an affair with the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, the X boss called the articleflimsy, unsupported “hearsay".
“The amount of attention on me has gone supernova, which super sucks. Unfortunately, even trivial articles about me generate a lot of clicks,”Musk said at the time. “Will try my best to be heads down focused on doing useful things for civilisation.”
(With inputs from agencies)
WATCH WION LIVE HERE