Tesla Has Dedicated Lane At US-Mexico Border

Tesla owners living close to the US-Mexico border have an extra reason to be happy this week.

Tesla has just inked an exclusive deal with the Mexico state of Nuevo Leon which gives Tesla its own lane at the US-Mexico border.

The extra lane will only allow Tesla owners through and will help owners of the electric vehicle save some time waiting in lines to cross the border.

Nuevo Leon stretches out over 9 miles close to the Texas border and has a population of over 5 million.

Take a look at the new lane here:

Dedicated Tesla lane at the US / Mexico border. This is what large scale production looks like 😂 pic.twitter.com/1fWK1FxXur

— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) July 21, 2022

#Tesla suppliers now have a dedicated lane for Mexico-United States border crossing https://t.co/QT2wtA5VTZ pic.twitter.com/J3cgH6IOZa

— TheTeslaLife (@TheTeslaLife) July 21, 2022

Electrek had more on the interesting story:

Tesla has managed to strike a deal with the state of Nuevo Leon to have its own lane at the US-Mexico border, which should help the company and its suppliers get across faster.

Nuevo Leon is a weirdly shaped state that managed to have its border drawn in a way that gave it a little 9-mile border with the United States and more specifically the state of Texas.

While it is small in size, it has a large population of more than 5 million people – most of them concentrated around Monterrey, its capital, and the many industries in the region, including many automotive suppliers.

Now we learn that Tesla has struck a deal with the state of Nuevo Leon to have its own lane at the border crossing. It resulted in fairly comical signage for a border crossing:

Bloomberg talked to Ivan Rivas, the economy minister of Nuevo Leon, about the deal. The politician said that it was an “incentive” awarded to Tesla:

It was a simple incentive. What we want is a crossing that’s much more expedited and efficient. And maybe there will be a lane for other companies in the future like there is for Tesla.

The exclusive lane will enable Tesla and its suppliers to avoid some wait time at the border, even though the border crossing in Nuevo Leon is among the least popular and the longest wait times are generally no more than 20 minutes.

Tesla Suppliers Can Skip the Line at the U.S.-Mexico Border https://t.co/Nv004xSAoN pic.twitter.com/HUkpUHL69z

— Jalopnik (@Jalopnik) July 21, 2022

Tech Crunch had these details to report:

Tesla suppliers traveling from Nuevo León, Mexico, to Texas now have their very own dedicated border patrol lane. Elon Musk’s electric car company, which recently relocated its headquarters from Fremont, California, to Austin, has struck a deal with the “pro-business” Mexican state to allow express access for Tesla and its suppliers at the Colombia Solidarity checkpoint, reports Bloomberg.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection, however, has given Tesla no such exemption, according to a spokesperson from the agency, so it looks like the ease of access is only one way for now.

“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,” Rick Pauza, public affairs officer for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told TechCrunch. “There is no separate, dedicated lane for Tesla or any specific company.”

Nuevo León is home to at least six Tesla suppliers, including APG Mexico and Taiwanese-based companies EnFlex Corp. and Quanta Computer. Ivan Rivas, the region’s economy minister, told Bloomberg that Nuevo León is becoming an “electro-mobility hub,” and that he expects the EV industry to contribute to between 5% and 7% of investment in the state this year.