Thailand, Malaysia’s Tesla hopes fade as Elon Musk appears to go cold on Asean

But as rumblings circulated that the American carmaker had scrapped its plan for a factory in Malaysia – as well as Thailand and Indonesia – Malaysian Trade Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said on Thursday that efforts to woo Tesla had not been “a waste of time”.

“Indeed, we held discussions with Elon Musk in an effort to attract investment, but Tesla never made a commitment to open a factory here,” Tengku Zafrul wrote on X.

While he refused to directly confirm that Tesla had shrunk its ambitions for manufacturing hubs inside the Southeast Asian car market which consultants EY estimate could be worth up to US$100 billion by 2035.

Eager to have the poster child of EVs in the country, Malaysia waived a long-standing affirmative action policy and allowed Tesla to enter the local market without having a local partner, with Anwar saying the company’s interest in setting shop in the country is “as good as putting [in the] equity” in an interview with CNBC last year.

Rumours that Tesla has gone cold on the Asean region followed a report in Thai paper The Nation quoting an anonymous official source as saying that the firm has scrapped plans for new factories in Thailand, Malaysia, or Indonesia and pulled out the team overseeing the project.

Tesla did not answer repeated requests for comment and is yet to confirm a pullback of its ambitions.

But EV market analysts said any retreat from plans for a battery-powered vehicle hub would be driven by the numbers.

“Tesla would be a latecomer in this market, and its EVs are pricier than those of Chinese companies,” said Cassey Lee from ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.

While the region has the potential for a vibrant EV market, it is currently dominated by multiple Chinese companies like BYD that have a