Elon Musk's announcement that Tesla Inc. will build a factory and a research center near Berlin makes perfect sense as a loud statement. Berlin isn't known as a car city but it does have a vigorous tech scene and Tesla isn't so much a car company as a tech one. But it's also reasonable from other points of view.

Musk, who has spent some time deciding on a European factory location, has decided on Gruenheide in Brandenburg, the German state that surrounds Berlin, and the research facility is to be located near Berlin's yet-to-open new international airport.