A day before Elon Musk, co-founder and CEO of Tesla, officially announces his company’s foray into the Middle East, social media is abuzz with the possible location for the American carmaker’s first showroom in the UAE.
A billboard has sprung up on Khalifa Juma Al Nabooda’s building on Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai – which earlier housed Porsche cars – indicating the showroom opening in “summer 2017”.
The new @TeslaMotors showroom in Dubai on SZR. #MyDubai #Tesla pic.twitter.com/4DORvwNOZa
— Samer Chami (@BiGsAm) February 12, 2017
While no official details have been released so far and Tesla’s UAE website isn’t active, the company is already in recruiting mode for its Dubai operations, with vacancies advertised on its global website.
Elon Musk and Mohammad Abdulla Al Gergawi, UAE’s Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future, will be addressing the audience at fifth edition of the World Government Summit (WGS) between 3.30 and 4 pm on Monday.
Their talk will come just after Mattar Al Tayer, chairman, Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority Dubai, will share his views on the global topic of “Self-driving transport- global challenges and opportunities”.
Last week, the Dubai Media Office tweeted a video of driverless Tesla ‘Model S’ on Dubai roads, stating the UAE is only one of [the] many new markets in which Tesla plans to expand in 2017.
The launch of Tesla is in line with Dubai government’s objective of making 25 percent of Dubai’s transport to be autonomous by 2030.
