Elon Musk Talks SpaceX and Tesla with Turkish President

According to Tesla tipster Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt), Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Thursday had a virtual meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to discuss issues related to the country’s electric vehicle (EV) and satellite & space technology industries, among other things.

NEWS: Elon Musk had a meeting with the Turkish president Erdoğan. Here are the main bullet points:

• Issues related to cooperation between public & private sector institutions in Turkey & the company in different fields, especially satellite & space technologies, were discussed pic.twitter.com/rLzmCJAwBq

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) December 16, 2021

According to Merritt, the main items discussed during the meeting included:

• Issues related to cooperation between Turkey’s public & private sector institutions and Musk’s companies in different fields, especially satellite and space technologies.
• Autonomous EVs and issues pertaining to digital economies.
• Long-term investments and steps the country and Musk’s companies can take together to improve existing EV infrastructure.
• A joint project that has to do with lithium batteries for Turkey’s TOGG line of first domestic electric vehicles.
• Plans to launch Turkey’s TÜRKSAT 5-B satellite into orbit through SpaceX.

During the meeting, President Erdoğan also talked about other projects that are being worked on under Turkey’s National Space Program.

Tesla doesn’t have much of a presence in Turkey at this time, despite Europe being a massive market for the company. SpaceX, however, was launched the Turkish TÜRKSAT 5-A satellite into space aboard its Falcon 9 rocket back in January.