Elon Musk says Tesla headquarters may still leave California – Los Angeles Times

Despite winning a standoff with local health officials over reopening his factory, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk is sticking with his threat to move company headquarters to another state.

Theres no question that our headquarters will remain in California for the short term, he said in a recent interview with Automotive News. Long term, well have to wait and see.

He didnt specify what he meant by short term and long term, or what might eventually prompt such a move.

Musks take-his-ball-elsewhere warnings first came in a May 9 tweet, after Alameda County officials ordered him not to reopen Teslas Fremont assembly plant until COVID-19 closure restrictions were lifted. The county had agreed to a May 18 reopen date, not soon enough for Musk.

Musk tweeted hed move the companys headquarters out of California for Texas or Nevada immediately if county health officials did not relent. He said hed think about closing the Fremont plant, too, depending on how Tesla is treated in the future. He reopened the plant a week earlier than the county allowed, and dared the county to arrest him.

Alamedas health officer, Erica Pan, relented, and Tesla resumed operations on May 12. Pan was later appointed state epidemiologist by Gov. Gavin Newsom and sworn in on July 15.

Musks comments came in a three-part report on Automotive News Daily Drive podcast recorded on July 26 and released over several days ending Tuesday.

The interview covered a wide array of topics including Teslas recent choice of Austin, Texas, as the site for a new vehicle manufacturing plant. Other states including Oklahoma were considered. When talking to key members of the team that would need to move to Austin from California in order to get the factory going, Austin was their top pick, Musk said. I guess a lot of people from California, if you ask them whats the one place you would move outside of California, its Austin .... I went to our team and said, Where do you want to spend time? And where would you potentially move? And they were like, Well, Austin is just the No. 1 choice.

Musk is selling his houses in Bel-Air and recently applied for a Texas drivers license.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

Read the original post:

Elon Musk says Tesla headquarters may still leave California - Los Angeles Times

Related Posts

Comments are closed.