I appears that Alameda County has started a needless war with one of its major job providers, and the winners won’t be Tesla or Alameda County. The winner will be whichever new state ends up being Tesla’s new headquarters.
Last week, I disagreed with Elon with regards to reopening America right away — or at least the way his point of view was framed/argued — because I wanted to be cautious. However, I don’t live in California, a state where several friends have told me that they couldn’t even go outside under threat of being arrested and coronavirus cases have been quite low in number, especially relative to the population. With this being the case, making Tesla the last automaker in the country to be open seems senseless.
Remember where the Covid-19 crisis started? It started in China, where Tesla has another big factory. In fact, Tesla’s Shanghai factory was one of the first to reopen there, and if any Californian or even American company has experience reopening in a safe manner, it is Tesla. Vincent of Third Row Tesla stated it pretty well:
Here’s the issue: As California slowly reopens, Alameda County refuses to see just how essential Tesla is. While Target, Walmart, and other retailers are allowed to stay open, with shoppers potentially spreading the infection able to shop freely, Tesla, a company that has first-hand experience in dealing with Covid-19 where it first started and that creates important products, is being told to sit down and shush.
It is senseless to turn your back on the one company that has experience in dealing with a pandemic when you are claiming that is the reason they cannot reopen.
In China, Tesla’s gigafactory was halted for weeks — all of the manufacturing operations there. However, the Chinese government worked with Tesla on reopening the factory and it is in full operation now. The Global Times of China shared that the outbreak was a test for Tesla in terms of the flexibility of its supply chain, a test that Tesla, as you can tell in the Q1 earnings call and report, passed beautifully.
Regarding Elon’s stance, I think it is admirable that he is standing up to the government officials. Many may think he is lashing out or snapping, but others see him as fighting for his company, including all the people who rely on it for their incomes.
https://twitter.com/breizh_72/status/1259312390409256962
It is Elon’s duty to stand up for his company, shareholders, employees, and customers. He’s doing the right thing by taking to Twitter to put pressure on the county government.
However, it’s also worth highlighting that if Tesla was to relocate its headquarters and the Fremont factory, those are thousands of jobs that could be lost. Sure, some may uproot their lives to move, but my heart goes out to those who want to work but can’t due to a local government going beyond what’s sensible instead of adequately considering the prosperity of its people.
Photos: Fremont factory in March 2019, by Chanan Bos and Kyle Field/CleanTechnica
CleanTechnica's Comment Policy