Elon Musk: Brexit uncertainty made it ‘too risky’ to put Tesla plant in UK

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.