US automotive and energy Storage Company expresses interest to invest in SA
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies has encouraged Tesla Company to work with his department and the South African Government to explore the possibility of setting up the manufacturing of Tesla products in South Africa. The company has expressed the interest of investing in South Africa during a Business Breakfast session in Washington, DC in the United States where Minister Davies was addressing investors. Davies focussed on priorities and interventions for putting South Africa economy on a new growth path and on investment and infrastructure opportunities.
Tesla Motors is an Automotive and Energy Storage Company that designs, manufactures and sells electric car components and batteries. The founder of the company is the South African born Mr Elon Reeve Musk and a leading entrepreneur. Minister Davies indicated that South Africa’s auto programme already has an additional incentive that applies to the electric vehicles. He further stated that government understands that electric vehicles are where things are going including hybrids and fuel cells.
The Minister also reiterated that government is still on track with the Independent Power Producers Programme (IPP) on renewable energy. He emphasised that the investors are telling him that IPP programme is one of the best power purchasing programmes in the world. Davies singled out the Solar Energy and Wing Energy technologies as the main beneficiaries of the programme. The main challenge of renewables especially Wind Energy and Photovoltaic Solar (PV) has been the storage issue but Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is providing a solution.
Minister Davies will tomorrow attend the 15th Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum. The Forum is an annual forum that takes place on an alternating basis between sub-Saharan Africa and the United States.
The theme for this year’s Forum is titled “Maximising U.S.-Africa Trade and Investment: AGOA and Beyond”. The forum will focus on the implementation of AGOA utilisation strategies, as well as, the US-Sub-Saharan Africa trade and investment relationship beyond AGOA.
AGOA is a unilateral US trade preference programme that provides duty-free, quota-free treatment for over 6 400 tariff lines into the United States market. US President Barrack Obama signed into law the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015 that contained the AGOA Extension and Enhancement Act, which extended AGOA for 10 years until 2025 - with South Africa included.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe
Departmental Spokesperson
Tel: 012 394 1650
Cell: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
Twitter: @the_dti
