The Fight For A Tesla Gigafactory In Poland – I wish I had more to offer

Published on November 18th, 2018 |
by Jacek Fior

The Fight For A Tesla Gigafactory In Poland

November 18th, 2018 by Jacek Fior

When writing my letter to Elon Musk a few weeks ago, little did I know about the real actions undertaken by so few for so many. Tesla is a dream — a dream of an extraordinary electric vehicle everybody wants to own, a dream of an out-of-the-universe leader, Elon Musk, who everybody wants to follow, and a dream of a gigafactory every nation wants to attract. It seems now that Poles around the world are joining forces to save Elon from making a terrible mistake by going some other place than Poland. 🙂 Here is the story.

There is a Polish woman in America who is strongly involved in the space industry and rocket science. Ewa is a passionate investor in new technologies and a space adventurer. She apparently has “access” to Elon when attending SpaceX rocket launches and has become quite determined to help Poland make the right pitch.

There is a Polish man in Poland who runs the most popular Facebook fan page here, called Tesla Klub Polska. Mariusz is passionate about Tesla and runs the fan page as a hobby. He knows more about Tesla than most other people I know. So, Mariusz is in touch with Ewa and chat after chat he suggests he could help connect the US team with our government authorities. He has prepared a huge portfolio of information about Tesla, its operations, its CEO, its investment plans, and its gigafactories. The file has gone to the Polish Minister of Investment and Economic Development, Jerzy Kwieciński.

What happens next is … not much. Kind of classic, as it boils down to mutual talks between the American supporter, Ewa, and the ministry about the terms and conditions of cooperation. Being a patriot is one thing. Doing significant work for the country is another and needs to be remunerated, and I mean remunerated well. The state of affairs a month ago, when I first learnt about it, was that Poland had never been in the cards for Elon and Tesla (something I find difficult to believe after my persuasive letter to Elon) and it would take a lot of effort and wit to be allowed at the table. As far as we could learn, nobody from Poland, apart from crazy enthusiasts like myself or Mariusz, had ever reached out to Tesla before the joint efforts of Mariusz and Ewa. Somehow disappointing. [Editor’s note: It was near the top of my list of question during the past two Tesla conference calls]

The good thing is that the Polish government has finally understood what scale of investment we are talking about here and has braced itself to join the race. As we have reportedly reached the Prime Minster level of involvement, chances are Poland will at least have an opportunity to pitch directly to Tesla. Not a place nor time to repeat all the arguments I have quoted before (hint, hint). I do believe we are the best choice for Tesla for many reasons. However, what our government must realize is that the competition is fierce – Germany is in the game as a country and various individual German states are making their own pitches, with Berlin on top of them in its recent bid. Can we beat other competitors and prevail? Yes! Influential advocates in the USA and determined authorities here in Poland need to believe it, too. I’m here to help, by the way.

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About the Author

Jacek Fior Jacek is an entrepreneurial type who sees opportunities all around. He runs his own corporate language training company and international translation agency, Better Horizons. One of his many passions, besides card tricks and mixology, is electric cars and their introduction on the market. He is currently working on launching the Polish platform of CleanTechnica — cleantechnica.pl — in the hopes of helping people to understand the revolution we are witnessing. Jacek is also a founding partner of Tesla Shuttle.