Crossing the US-Mexico border is about to get a whole lot easier for Tesla and its suppliers after the electric-car company negotiated a dedicated crossing lane with the state of Nuevo Leon.
The lane is located at the Colombia Solidarity border checkpoint near Laredo, Texas. It is adorned with a green highway sign bearing the company’s logo.
The deal follows the company’s move from Silicon Valley in California to Austin, Texas, last year. And while details of how Tesla acquired the lane are scarce, Neuvo Leon’s economy minister Ivan Rivas said only that “it was a simple incentive.”
“What we want is a crossing that’s much more expedited and efficient,” Rivas said. “And maybe there will be a lane for other companies in the future like there is for Tesla.”
The Colombia Solidarity checkpoint is considered one of the less busy border crossings, according to Bloomberg. At its most active, commercial crossings usually average about 20 minutes.
The dedicated lane is only available for crossing into Mexico. The US-managed crossings do not offer a specific lane for any company at this time.
“For northbound commercial trucks at the Colombia-Solidarity Bridge, currently, there are only the regular cargo lanes and the Free and Secure Trade (Fast) lane, which is for the exclusive use of companies that are enrolled in the CBP-Trade Partnership against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program,” a CBP spokesperson told TechCrunch. “There is no separate, dedicated lane for Tesla or any specific company.”
At least six of Tesla’s suppliers are located in the state of Nuevo Leon, which is up from zero companies in the electric-vehicle industry before 2021.
Rivas estimates that this year between five percent and seven percent of investment in the state will come from the electric-vehicle sector.
“Nuevo Leon is turning into an electro-mobility hub,” he said.
