Elon Musk announced this at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, which takes place at the Tesla plant near Austin.
Tesla will move its headquarters from California to Austin, Texas, and build a new factory there, CEO Elon Musk said Thursday at the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
The move is in line with a threat Musk made more than a year ago when he was frustrated with local coronavirus lockdowns that forced Tesla to suspend production at its Fremont, California plant. On Thursday, Musk said the company will continue to work at the plant and expand production there.
“There’s a limit to expansion in the Bay Area,” he said, adding that high housing prices mean some workers have long commutes to work. The Tesla Cybertruck will be built at a Texas plant near Austin, just minutes from downtown and the airport, he said.
Mr. Musk has been an outspoken critic of pandemic-related restrictions, calling them “fascist,” and in March 2020 predicted that there would be few new cases of the virus by the end of April. In December, he said he moved to Texas to be closer to the new factory. His other company, SpaceX, launches rockets from the state.
The company plans to sell about 1 million vehicles this year and is planning a significant expansion. In addition to the Austin plant, Tesla is also building a plant near Berlin. The headquarters has been located in Palo Alto for over a decade. The city is home to Stanford University and is across the sea from Fremont.
Tesla is one of several Californian companies that have announced a move to Texas in recent months. Hewlett Packard Enterprise said in December it would move to the Houston area, while Charles Schwab moved to the suburbs of Dallas and Fort Worth.
Musk’s decision will no doubt intensify the debate between officials and executives in Texas and California over which state is best for business. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and his predecessor pushed for California companies to relocate to the state, citing lower taxes and lower housing and other expenses. California has long cited the technological prowess of Silicon Valley and its universities as the reason so many entrepreneurs, including Tesla, Facebook, Google and Apple, are building companies there.
Texas has also become more attractive to workers in recent years due to the lower cost of living. Austin is a thriving liberal city, with the University of Texas especially flourishing. Many technology companies, some of them in California, have opened huge campuses there. As a result, however, housing costs and traffic volumes have risen significantly, leaving the city with problems that California local governments have faced for years.
Last month, Mr. Abbott quoted Mr. Musk as saying why a new Texas law severely restricting abortion would not financially hurt the state. “Elon keeps telling me that he loves the social policy in Texas,” the governor told CNBC.
When asked to respond, Musk did not confirm or deny Abbott’s words. “In general, I think that governments should not impose their will on people, and in doing so should strive to maximize their accumulated happiness,” he tweeted.
Governor Abbott welcomed the news in a tweet Thursday night, writing, “The Lone Star State is a land of opportunity and innovation.”
Erin Mellon, a spokeswoman for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, did not directly comment on Tesla’s move, but said in a statement that the state is “the greatest creative home for companies”, California will “stand up for workers”, public health and women’s right to choose. ”
Musk spoke about the company’s moves after shareholders voted on a series of proposals aimed at improving Tesla’s corporate governance. According to preliminary results, investors have supported Tesla with all but two countermeasures: one would force board members to run for re-election every year instead of every three years, and the other would require the company to release more details about Strive. diversify your workforce.
Tesla said in a report last year that its US leadership is 59 percent white and 83 percent male. The company’s total US workforce is 79 percent male and 34 percent white.
The vote comes days after a federal jury ordered Tesla to pay $137 million to former contractor Owen Diaz, who said he repeatedly faced racism while working at the Fremont plant in 2015 and harassment in 2016. Tesla is facing similar accusations from dozens of others. cool promotion.
A diversity reporting proposal from Calvert Research and Management, a Morgan Stanley-owned firm focused on responsible investing, would require Tesla to publish an annual report on its diversity and inclusion efforts, as many other large firms already do.
Investors also re-elected Mr. Musk’s brother Kimbal Musk and former 21st Century Fox chief executive James Murdoch to the board, although ISS, a firm that advises investors on shareholder voting and corporate governance, recommended a vote against them.
Proposals for additional reporting on Tesla’s use of forced arbitration to resolve disputes with employees and the human rights implications of its sources have not come to fruition, early results have shown. The final results will be announced in the coming days, the company said.
Post time: Oct-14-2022