French President Emmanuel Macron will meet with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday, the second time in just over a month, to promote France as a possible site for one of the electric vehicle 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 France is competing with other EU countries such as Spain, which is in talks with Tesla too, a source told Reuters.
"I'm going (into that meeting) with an agenda," Macron told reporters as he visited the VivaTech summit in Paris, France's biggest tech fair, which Musk will visit on Friday.
"We are going to talk about artificial intelligence, in which he is involved, social media, regulation framework ... And then I will also talk to him about cars, batteries, to promote French and European attractiveness," Macron said.
Asked specifically whether he was hoping to secure a Tesla gigafactory, Macron said: "It's up to the company to look at these different issues in Europe. So we will be selling France" as an investment destination.
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.
Its northern region has attracted four gigafactory projects, the first one inaugurated last month by a consortium including Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz and French oil giant TotalEnergies.
