Elon Musk chose Germany ahead of the U.K. for his first European Tesla factory because Brexit made it "too risky."
The billionaire announced Tuesday that he was opening a Tesla research and development base in Berlin, saying at an awards ceremony: "Everyone knows that German engineering is outstanding and that's part of the reason we are locating our gigafactory Europe in Germany."
After the announcement, Musk told Auto Express that “Brexit [uncertainty] made it too risky to put a gigafactory in the UK.”
In 2014, Musk told the same trade publication that he wanted to build a plant in the U.K. and in November 2016 said Brexit was not likely to have "a significant impact" on Tesla's plans.
