Elon Musk threatens to move Tesla from California to Texas or Nevada
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Saturday that the company would sue Alameda County and threatened to immediately move its headquarters and future projects to Texas or Nevada. That escalated the fight between the company and health officials over whether Tesla could open a plant in Fremont.
On May 8, Tesla planned to return about 30 percent of its workers to the plants, ignoring Alamide County’s orders to stay home.
Clarification: Tesla filed a lawsuit against Alamide County to overturn the county’s orders and allow the automaker to resume operations.
The Alamida County Department of Public Health issued a statement in response, saying the agencies “directly communicated and worked closely with the Tesla team in Fremont.” The agencies called it a “collaborative, good-faith effort to develop and implement a safety plan that will reopen operations and protect the health and well-being of the thousands of employees who commute to and from the Tesla plant.”
Officials said Tesla is following the recommendations and looks forward to the agreement.
On Thursday, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued new guidelines that allowed manufacturers to resume operations at the plants. Musk later sent an internal email to employees about plans to restart operations based on the governor’s revised order. However, the governor’s guidance warned that local governments could retain stricter regulations. Last week, Alamida County, as well as several other Bay Area counties and cities, extended the self-exclusion until the end of May. The ordinances have been revised, and some restrictions have been relaxed. But not for manufacturing.
The Alameda County Health Department said Friday that Tesla had not been given the “green light,” and said that if the company did, it would be considered a violation.
On Twitter, Musk said Tesla was filing a lawsuit against Alamide County. He also later urged other shareholders to do so as well.
“Alamida’s unelected and clueless ‘interim health officer’ is acting in defiance of the governor, the president and our constitutional freedoms, and just plain common sense!” the message read. In another tweet, he said that Tesla will now move its headquarters and future programs to Texas or Nevada.
“If we do retain manufacturing operations in Fremont, it will depend on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last automaker left in California,” Musk wrote.
Fremont Mayor Lily May said Saturday after Musk’s tweets that she is increasingly worried about the potential consequences for the regional economy if no provision is made for large manufacturing companies like Tesla to resume operations under a workplace safety order.
“We know that many important businesses have proven that they can operate by following strict safety and social exclusion rules,” May said in a statement. “I am confident that these same practices can be followed by other manufacturing businesses, especially those that are so important to our employment base.”
May urged Alamide County to work with local businesses to come up with acceptable guidelines for local economic recovery. “As they have for more than a decade, city officials are ready to support Tesla as soon as they can resume car production and follow a thoughtful approach that is safe for our community in Fremont,” May said.
Palo Alto Mayor Adrian Fine also endorsed Tesla on Twitter, writing that he was willing to help. “I really appreciate that a cutting-edge company is based here that employs people, pays taxes and helps solve the climate crisis,” Fine wrote on his Twitter.
Tesla operates in Nevada; but not in Texas. The large battery factory known as Gigafactory 1 is located in Sparks, Nevada. Tesla is looking for a new location to build a new plant in the U.S. that will produce the Cybertruck crossover and Model Y. Some speculate that Texas is a better choice.
Sources told TechCrunch that Tesla is in talks with Nashville officials to find a factory there that will produce the Cybertruck and Model Y crossover.
“Busy looking for a location for the Cybertruck Gigafactory. Will be in the central U.S.,” Musk wrote in March. He added that the plant will produce Model Y crossovers for the East Coast market. The first Model Y vehicles are being produced at the Fremont plant.
Original article: https://tcrn.ch/2WKIinz