foreign tech sector but most importantly it has more water than nuevo leon the two appeared intent on playing nice we are two states that do not have to compete and cannibalize each other cannibalization for investment is a mistake alfaro said lopez obradors focus on water might be more about politics than about droughts said gabriela siller chief economist at nuevo leonbased banco base she said the president appeared to be trying to steer tesla investment to a state governed by his own morena party like michoacan or veracruz that could be a dangerous game siller said tesla could say its not somebodys toy to be moved around anywhere and it could decide not to come to mexico she said sam abuelsamid a principal research analyst at usbased guidehouse insights said playing one state off against another has been common practice in the us you remember a few years back amazon talked about building their headquarters like every state city in the country was putting in bids trying to lure amazon there abuelsamid said there are doubts that whatever musk eventually does announce will be an auto assembly plant foreign relations secretary marcelo ebrard said his understanding is that it wont be a plant but rather an ecosystem of suppliers musk previously has made promises that dont come true or happen years after he says they will for instance in 2019 he promised a fleet of fully autonomous robotaxis on the roads sometime in 2020 nearly three years later tesla has yet to sell any autonomous vehicles while there has been little talk in mexico so far of subsidies many auto companies have gotten significant incentives to build plants in mexico that kind of race can be costly its questionable whether its actually that economically beneficial to localities or providing those subsidies said abuelsamid theyre sometimes spending billions of dollars in tax breaks to lure a company in there musk at times has floated the idea of building a 25000 electric vehicle that would cost about 20000 less than the current model 3 now teslas leastexpensive car many automakers build lowercost models in mexico to save on labor costs and protect profit margins a tesla investment could be part of near shoring by us companies that once manufactured in china but now are leery of logistical and political problems there that those companies will now turn to mexico represents the latin american countrys biggest foreign investment hope the fight among states to attract investments from this nearshoring phenomenon is going to be tough complicated alfaro said as ramirez bedolla put it wherever tesla sets up it is going to be big news in mexicoalso read italy seeks alliance with france and germany to tame eu car emissions lawsitaly wants to team up with france and germany to influence and slow the pace of european union laws on cutting car and truck emissions industry minister adolfo urso said see more details ap published on feb 26 2023 at 1152