WhiteStar announcement tomorrow with Governator @11:30PST!!

[doug]

The fact that this Whitestar announcement was completely toothless (except for the building in California part), is that a sign that the Roadster is delayed again? It seems they don't want to announce any major Whitestar information and allow someone to BUY a Whitestar until they've got the Roadster production up and running. Doesn't that imply that the Roadster production is still having problems or running late ?

I think I've said this somewhere else, but the timing of the announcement probably had more to do with the Governor's schedule than anything else. Also I think some piece of legislation key to the deal was just passed a week prior.

 

[doug]

Brief Elon vid:

Office of the Governor

Today was a historic day. We had the Governor here announcing that Tesla will be doing manufacturing of our sedan in California. The Governor and his staff have done an amazing job in getting us to move from New Mexico to California and I can say to all California residents and taxpayers, the Governor and his office have done a fantastically good thing for the economy and for the future of the state. We wanted to be in California; they made it possible to be in California. And this sedan is going to be the first mass-manufactured pure-electric vehicle. It's a hugely historic thing and it's going to be incredibly, palpably, invaluable for the state to be here.

 

[doug]

Some perhaps not unexpected backlash:

KCBS - Small Business Owners Say Tesla Deal Unfair

Dr. T.J. Rogers, CEO of Cypress and chairman of Sunpower, moved his wafer manufacturing from California to Texas and Minnesota to reduce costs. He said he is outraged that the state would not offer the same type of deal for small businesses like his.
“I can’t afford to run a plant here [in California] because every time I put in a new piece of equipment and try to upgrade the plant I have to pay an extra six percent on top of what the equipment costs.”

I never thought of Cypress Semiconductor as a small business, though.

CEO, T.J. Rodgers:

 

[doug]

Some more photos from the event:
Tesla Roadster's Photos - Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger visits Tesla Motors | Facebook