Tesla Reaches Job Target For Buffalo Gigafactory, Avoids $41.2 Million Penalty

In February 2020, before Covid came to the US, I wrote this article predicting that Tesla would most likely meet its April hiring deadline for its plant in Buffalo, NY. I think that this was one of the key pieces of news that had people up in arms (at least on Twitter) before the pandemic, and later on, the 2020 US presidential election distracted all of us.

My prediction was off, but Tesla was able to get an extension on that deadline to December 31, 2021. The Investigative Post reported today that Tesla has now reached that job goal. Tesla currently has 1,460 employees at its gigafactory in South Buffalo. In exchange for $950 million in subsidies, Tesla had to meet a mandate to employ 1,460 workers. There was a lot going on and right when it seemed that Tesla was going to make that April deadline, Covid-19 hit and everything was shut down.

A spokesperson from the Empire State Development Corp., Pamm Lent, told the Investigative Post that as of November 10, Tesla reported the employment of 1,536 full-time and 21 part-time employees at the factory in Buffalo. Also, Tesla reported that it has 704 employees working at various other locations in the state.

Lent added that the number of jobs that Tesla reported in mid-November far exceeded its year-end deadline for the plant — a deadline that would have cost Tesla $41.2 million if it didn’t reach its job target.