Blog Tesla Will Move HQ Out of California After Fight Against Health Order

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Twitter Saturday that the company will move its headquarters and “future operations” out of California. Additionally, Tesla plans to file a lawsuit against Alameda County over a health order that shut down the Fremont, Calif. facility.

Tesla planned to return to production on Friday, however Alameda County’s interim public health officer, Dr. Erica Pan said that Tesla must keep the plant closed until the county lifts restrictions in place to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Musk said the suit will be filed “immediately.” He called Pan “ignorant” for keeping the restrictions in place despite California Gov. Gavin Newsom loosening the stay-at-home order.

“This is the final straw,” Musk tweeted. “Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependen on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in CA.”

https://twitter.com/x/status/1259162367285317633

The tweet suggests that Tesla’s next factory is set to be built in Texas. Musk has teased the Lone Star State as the home for the next factory and an announcement was expected soon.

Tesla’s factory in Fremont has 5.3 million square feet of manufacturing and office space on 370 acres of land, with plans to expand to 10 million square feet, according to the company’s website.

There are 10,000 employees at the Fremont factory who build the Tesla Model S, Model X, and Model 3.

 

[blissdancer]

Tesla has long been moving future operations outside of California.
Nevada, Upstate New York, Shanghai, Germany, and likely Texas.

Umm the FUTURE operations do not exist in California (I can barely stop laughing) so they cannot be moved out of California. The reason for opening new plants outside of California is for distribution purposes.

 

[cpa]

Call me old fashion, but not returning phone calls and e-mails means to me that you are not doing your job properly.

Indeed. Tesla reaps what it sows.

 

[sn206]

I'd be upset too. The numbers say there is absolutely no reason Tesla can not produce cars. A virus with a 99.6% survival rate and we shut down and kill the entire economy. Far more people will die from the economy crashing than from this virus in the US. If he does sue and it makes it out of the 9th circuit he will win as all of these lock downs are un-constitutional. California is run by people who are not friendly to businesses but that's on Musk as the state has been that way for over two decades. He should move it to Texas.

Is there another virus that kills 80k plus within 8 wks?

 

[Jimbo435]

There is a reason automotive plants are being built in the red states.

Because that is where you have to go to be able to lower expenses by exploiting workers

 

[AirKuhl]

You are absolutely right. Red states have hundreds of thousands of people willing to compromise the quality of their air, water, land, medical care, and overall quality of life in order to enjoy their "freedoms" and low-wage jobs. Better there than here. Red states, we salute you! Sal-ute!

After 20 years in tech in the Bay area, I moved to a "red state" and every single metric you listed is objectively better. Other than perhaps medical care since I lived near Stanford, but it's close.

Gross generalizations and divisiveness are the problem, not the solution.

 

[TESLER2013]

After 20 years in tech in the Bay area, I moved to a "red state"

WAIT.. haha do you even know where you are? Your profile says Santa Cruz Mountains, CA lol I don't think you moved yet.

 

[LDMD7]

Elon allows his hubris to get in the way of his point. He turns officials off because he can’t contain his swagger and won’t follow rules.

 

[Fireball AZ]

Well if I owned and was in charge of the Tesla Factory in Fremont CA I would be darn mad too just not acting like a fool but a very managed Professional in charge of a huge amount of people who trust you to do the right thing. He should move out of CA to TX since most manufacturers have left the State and the Governor cares less of what Automakers do in his state. Toyota left in 2017 for TX and it seemed no one cared or was worried about the outcome. One huge amount of taxes were lost!

 

[pchilds]

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Twitter Saturday that the company will move its headquarters and “future operations” out of California. Additionally, Tesla plans to file a lawsuit against Alameda County over a health order that shut down the Fremont, Calif. facility. Tesla planned to return to production on Friday, however Alameda County’s interim...
[WPURI="https://teslamotorsclub.com/blog/2020/05/09/tesla-will-move-hq-out-of-california-after-fight-against-health-order/"]READ FULL ARTICLE[/WPURI]

 

[pchilds]

Musk proves himself to be, just another billionaire, that cares more about collecting more money, for himself. Than caring about people and the planet. The shutdown is saving lives, Musk has proved that no billionaire gives a *sugar* about their workers.

 

[jboy210]

You are right but not for the reason you think. Recovery rate is actually over 99%.

Huge numbers of folks are asymptomatic which dramatically waters down the fatality rate. Serious studies all have the mortality rate under 0.5%

But asymptomatic spreaders is the worst case scenario. Let assume 1 in 1000 will have symptoms. That means 999 are out there living their lives, going into stores, coffee places, work being contagious. All the while spreading the virus to others. And also unfortunately the incubation period is 5 to 9 days so more spreading. It would be better if the virus hit with major symptoms very quickly so people would would feel sick and stay home and not spread the disease. And in combination with a higher mortality rate, fast symptoms would let the virus burn out quickly

 

[Brovane]

Musk proves himself to be, just another billionaire, that cares more about collecting more money, for himself. Than caring about people and the planet. The shutdown is saving lives, Musk has proved that no billionaire gives a *sugar* about their workers.

Musk probably cares more about the long term damage that humans are doing to the plane than actual people.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Is there another virus that kills 80k plus within 8 wks?

I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure. - Agent Smith, The Matrix

 

[Bucfan11]

Nope, not true: "....And there's no Constitutional angle here, as the USA has a long legal history with quarantines, especially from the 18th and 19th centuries...."

The sick traditionally have been quarantined, a society never does that with healthy people.

I tried to explain the difference between quarantined and house arrest but no luck..

 

[Brovane]

Get out the popcorn. Looks like Musk opened the factory anyway.

Personally I don't agree with this. It sounds like a agreement was in-place to open on May 18th. Musk should have given the county the additional week and had some additional patience.

Tesla has already started making cars again at its California factory

 

[user212_nr]

I live in CA. We are here because of family only at this point. I can make the same or more in Dallas and my wife wouldn't have to work at all. CA is now seeing population decrease and its largely a result of the high taxes and crazy cost of living. We certainly wont be retiring here and I would love to leave before then as well. The sunny weather isnt worth the over population and the extra pay isnt worth the extra cost.

No, he will move the HQ, but that does depend on the reaction of his employees. I doubt they will close their offices in CA as they need to keep some or most workers who will not move. They will need to continue recruiting workers from Silicon Valley, especially their autopilot team.

The HQ move seems to be something that he's been contemplating for a while. The shutdown is the "straw that broke the camel's back" so to speak - high real estate prices, traffic, etc. Its not a threat - the HQ move is something unrelated to the shutdown.

 

[Havoc]

I'm a bit shocked by all the California hate in this thread. I've lived in several states (including Texas and California) while working in high tech, and I'll take California over Texas any day of the week.

Reasons:
California has many more regulations about treating employees fairly. One reason manufacturers don't like the state.
The government cares about the environment, another reason manufacturers don't like the state.
There are endless opportunities for people willing work hard.
It has great beaches for the summer, and world class snow resorts in the winter.
It has wonderful people. I have the best neighbors I've ever had while in California. People care about others (even immigrants).
Unlike Texas, it's not a cultural desert.

California does have problems:
Housing is too expensive in the four large populations centers - Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, the San Francisco bay area. Outside these areas, prices are not much different from Austin.
It does have a lot of homeless people. Not surprising - would you rather be homeless during the winter in Michigan (or another northern state) or California? Also, there are a lot of cities that will happily buy a homeless person a Greyhound bus ticket to California to get them out of their hair.
The streets are just fine, not dirty, except in the few areas where the homeless congregate - which also tend to be places where they can get money from tourists. I never see homeless people in my city.

Texas has problems also:
Health care for the poor is totally inadequate. In Texas, the worst disease known to health care is poverty.
If you aren't white, you have problems. My wife's parents are Chinese, and she was treated quite badly despite being born in the USA and having a masters from an Ivy League college. She was happy to leave.
Limited employment opportunities. I had to leave to advance my career.
The state will become unlivable due to global warming - more hurricanes, even more heat, and a government without plans.

 

[Bucfan11]

Georgia has been "open" for 3 weeks now. Keep in mind this is a red state full of red neck people that are too stupid to understand the severity of this virus. After 3 weeks of being open the virus has BOOMED... wait, no it is continuing to decline and is now very low. I would believe with all of the people in California being so much smarter the the red necks in Georgia they could open up too.

 

[linux-works]

Georgia has been "open" for 3 weeks now. Keep in mind this is a red state full of red neck people that are too stupid to understand the severity of this virus. After 3 weeks of being open the virus has BOOMED... wait, no it is continuing to decline and is now very low. I would believe with all of the people in California being so much smarter the the red necks in Georgia they could open up too.

 

[TESLER2013]

It does have a lot of homeless people. Not surprising - would you rather be homeless during the winter in Michigan (or another northern state) or California?

haha. I love this point. California is THE destination for homeless people. I'd come here too. Matter of fact, I'd choose Santa Cruz... nice..