Tesla Motors, to be Based in Cape Town, Already Expanding

News of Tesla Motors’ entry to South Africa is coming out in dribs and drabs. This week it was announced that the company owned by South African-born billionaire Elon Musk would open its first office in Africa in Cape Town, while five new jobs were  posted on the company’s website.

The entry of Tesla to South Africa was announced in December, with the appointment of Evan Rice of GreenCape to head what seemed would be a small, one-person office to sell not the company’s famous electric cars but Powerwall batteries, its energy solutions aimed at homes and businesses. But the news was scant on details, even where the office would be located.

This week Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille said Tesla would be based in the city.

“Some of the products will be in the country in the next month,” she was quoted as saying. “It’s just going to add to the energy solutions that we are looking for. We are very grateful that he has chosen Cape Town as the first base in Africa.” she was quoted as saying.

According to the Tesla Motors website, it is also hiring five people in South Africa, an applications engineer, an analyst, two sales managers, and a training specialist for an office in in the country. As of two weeks ago, according to one news report, there wasn’t a single job posting for the country or the continent.

There has also been an unconfirmed report that Tesla wants to build a gigafactory in the Western Cape to manufacture its Powerwall batteries.