Tesla chief Elon Musk says the automaker will relocate its headquarters from California to Austin, Texas.
Musk made the announcement during a shareholders meeting on Thursday, October 7.
The meeting took place at an under-construction plant in Austin that will produce Tesla’s Cybertruck and Semi truck, as well as its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, when the facility comes online later this year.
“I’m excited to announce that we’re moving our headquarters to Austin, Texas,” Musk said during the shareholder event, which was streamed live online.
He added that despite the move, Tesla would continue to expand its production activities at its current plant in Fremont, California, announcing an ambitious goal of increasing output of its electric cars at the factory by 50%.
For those who closely follow Tesla and its charismatic boss, news of the company’s decision to move its headquarters nearly 1,500 miles south-east may not come as a big surprise.
Musk, after all, spent the last year selling most of his California homes, revealing in June that his “primary home” is now a $50,000 property in Boca Chica, also in Texas and close to the test site of SpaceX, the spaceflight company that he also leads.
In addition, Musk and his car company fell out with California officials in 2020 when the company briefly defied an order to temporarily close its Fremont factory as part of measures aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus. As the closure order continued, a disgruntled Musk threatened to move the factory to another state.
A while later, the Tesla CEO lambasted California’s approach to business, saying: “If a team is winning for too long, they tend to get complacent,” adding, “California has been winning for a long time, and I think they’re taking it for granted.”
While the Fremont factory will continue to provide work for around 10,000 people, Musk confirmed on Thursday that the company’s headquarters will be departing California for Texas.
On other pressing issues such as the production timeline for Tesla’s highly anticipated Cybertruck pickup, Musk said that due to a “constant struggle with parts supply” — a matter affecting automakers and tech firms globally — Cybertruck production will likely start “in the next year, and then reach volume production in 2023, and hopefully we can also be producing the new Semi and the new Roadster in 2023 as well.”
He added: “So we should be through our severe supply chain shortages in 2023, I’m optimistic that that’ll be the case.”
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