Tesla makes California the home of its global engineering headquarters.
CEO Elon Musk and California Governor Gavin Newsom announced on wednesday Tesla’s new engineering headquarters will be located in Hewlett-Packard’s former offices.
It may come as a surprise that Tesla’s relationship with California suddenly rekindled after the EV maker moved its headquarters from Fremont, California to Austin, Texas in 2021. Musk has also repeatedly criticized California for being overregulated and burdening it with high taxes.
But Tesla still keeps its first factory in Fremont, where many of its engineers live, running.
Tesla murmured Newsom is helping EV makers to invest in California in large part because it is recruiting new tech jobs in California. A source told CNBC that the focus will be on engineers versed in research and development and artificial intelligence.
Referring to California’s long relationship with Tesla, Newsom said, “California is proud to be on the cutting edge of discoveries, new ideas and innovation. He said he is excited to transform the company and strengthen California’s manufacturing dominance.
Musk said the Fremont plant is expected to produce more than 600,000 cars this year.
Tesla also said Wednesday that it will focus on producing battery cells in the United States to take advantage of federal incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act.
Tesla is California’s most popular automaker, but it has a difficult relationship with the state. Tesla is being investigated by the federal Employment Equity Agency and is in the midst of a lawsuit from the state’s Office of Civil Rights over worker complaints that its Fremont factory is riddled with racial prejudice and harassment.California The Department of Motor Vehicles has also accused Tesla of mispromoting its advanced driver assistance systems for Autopilot and Fully Self-Driving (FSD).
Tesla plans to share more details about the announcement during a livestream event scheduled for Wednesday.
