Nissan is interested in selling Tesla its factories. Tesla probably isn’t.
A Japanese group plans on approaching Tesla about investing in Nissan, the Financial Times reports, in hopes the American electric vehicle maker will want to get its hands on more American factories.
“The group is hopeful Tesla will become a strategic investor since they believe the world’s largest pure electric-vehicle maker is keen to acquire Nissan’s plants in the US, according to the people. The factories would help it boost domestic manufacturing in response to Donald Trump’s tariff threats.”
Tesla’s stock is down more than 3% today, while Nissan’s is up nearly 6%.
The problem with the proposal is that Tesla makes a big deal about how special its factories are. Indeed, it’s one of the many reasons besides its cars that Tesla gives for the company’s insane valuation.
As CEO Elon Musk said in response to the report today, “The Tesla factory IS the product.”
Musk has promised to outfit his car factories with thousands of its humanoid Optimus robots this year, to do everything from transporting metal to welding.
Last year, after Tesla unveiled the Cybercab, Musk noted on an earnings call:
“With respect to the Cybercab: it’s not just a revolutionary vehicle design, but a revolution in vehicle manufacturing that is also coming with the Cybercab. The cycle time, like the units per hour of the Cybercab line, it is just really something special. I mean, this is going to be half an order of magnitude better than other car manufacturing lines not — like not even the same league... I said several years ago, maybe the hardest Tesla product to copy will be the factory.”
While Nissan’s US factories could certainly help Tesla with tariff trouble, buying into ordinary car factories would hurt Tesla’s narrative that its factories are one of a kind.
“The group is hopeful Tesla will become a strategic investor since they believe the world’s largest pure electric-vehicle maker is keen to acquire Nissan’s plants in the US, according to the people. The factories would help it boost domestic manufacturing in response to Donald Trump’s tariff threats.”
Tesla’s stock is down more than 3% today, while Nissan’s is up nearly 6%.
The problem with the proposal is that Tesla makes a big deal about how special its factories are. Indeed, it’s one of the many reasons besides its cars that Tesla gives for the company’s insane valuation.
As CEO Elon Musk said in response to the report today, “The Tesla factory IS the product.”
Musk has promised to outfit his car factories with thousands of its humanoid Optimus robots this year, to do everything from transporting metal to welding.
Last year, after Tesla unveiled the Cybercab, Musk noted on an earnings call:
“With respect to the Cybercab: it’s not just a revolutionary vehicle design, but a revolution in vehicle manufacturing that is also coming with the Cybercab. The cycle time, like the units per hour of the Cybercab line, it is just really something special. I mean, this is going to be half an order of magnitude better than other car manufacturing lines not — like not even the same league... I said several years ago, maybe the hardest Tesla product to copy will be the factory.”
While Nissan’s US factories could certainly help Tesla with tariff trouble, buying into ordinary car factories would hurt Tesla’s narrative that its factories are one of a kind.
