It appears Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s frustration with California grew to a boiling point early Saturday, with Musk threatening to leave California over the prolonged shutdown of Tesla’s Fremont factory.
Musk had hoped to open the factory in a limited capacity on Friday, after being idle for over a month due to the coronavirus outbreak. But late Friday, Alameda County ordered Tesla to once again shut down operations at the factory, which is the only plant in the US that manufactures vehicles for Tesla.
On Saturday morning, Musk took to Twitter to air his frustrations with the situation, threatening to leave California immediately, moving Tesla’s head office to Texas and Nevada.
Frankly, this is the final straw. 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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2020
San Joaquin County, right next door to Alameda, has been sensible & reasonable, whereas Alameda has been irrational & detached from reality. Our castings foundry and other faculties in San Joaquin have been working 24/7 this entire time with no ill effects. Same with Giga Nevada.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2020
Musk’s frustrations lie with Alameda County in particular, as California Governor Gavin Newsom said earlier this week that manufacturers in the state would be allowed to reopen. However, Alameda County is ignoring the order, with plans to remain shutdown until the end of May, with only essential businesses allowed to reopen.
Soon after his tweets, Musk got some support from the Mayor of the City of Fremont, Lily Mei, who said in statement the city is prepared support Tesla in their efforts to reopen in a safe and responsible manner.
“As the local shelter-in-place order continues without provisions for major manufacturing activity, such as Tesla, to resume, I am growing concerned about the potential implications for our regional economy. We know many essential businesses have proven they can successfully operate using strict safety and social distancing practices. I strongly believe these same practices could be possible for other manufacturing businesses, especially those that are so critical to our employment base. The City encourages the County to engage with our local businesses to come up with acceptable guidelines for re-opening our local economy. As we have done for over a decade, the City is prepared to support Tesla as soon as they are able to resume automobile manufacturing operations and are committed to a thoughtful, balanced approach to this effort that remains safe for our Fremont community.”
If Musk does intend to leave California, it would take some time for the process to happen. But given his apparent frustration at the moment, it wouldn’t be surprising to see it happen quicker than most would think.
