Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has asked Tesla CEO Elon Musk to build a Tesla factory in Turkey, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.
Erdogan asked Musk during a meeting at the Turkish House, a skyscraper near the United Nations in New York, the Turkish news agency said on its X social media platform on Sunday.
Erdogan is in the United States to attend the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Tesla and the Turkish embassy in Washington, DC did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
Musk is also due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in California on Monday. Musk posted on X that their talks would focus on artificial intelligence technology.
In August, Tesla expressed interest in building a factory in India to produce a low-cost electric vehicle (EV).
Tesla currently has six factories and is building a seventh in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon as part of the electric carmaker’s push to expand its global footprint.
Musk said in May that the carmaker would likely choose a location for a new factory by the end of the year.
Tesla shares are up 123 per cent so far this year, and the carmaker said on Saturday it had produced its five millionth car.
As well as running Tesla, Musk also bought X, formerly known as Twitter, for $44 billion in 2022.
Despite describing himself as a free speech absolutist, Musk has complied with some requests from the Turkish government to censor content in the country.
In other cases, the social media company has defied orders from Turkish courts.
