Tesla won’t be the last company to invest in Germany over Britain because of Brexit

It makes economic sense for the electric-car pioneer to build its new Gigafactory near Berlin, not Birmingham, writes Ben Chapman

‘Too risky’ was how Tesla’s enigmatic founder Elon Musk described the prospect of spending billions of pounds on a state-of-the-art battery factory here (Reuters)

Forget catastrophic Brexit scenarios of 30-mile-long lorry queues and piles of fresh fruit rotting at the border while Britons feed their children from stockpiled tins of corned beef.

The more sober, long-term reality facing the UK as it leaves the EU is likely to be a steady stream of decisions like the one announced on Tuesday by Tesla.

Elon Musk’s electric car company is to build its vast new “Gigafactory” in Berlin and not Britain.