Tesla says California remains home of its engineering headquarters

By Hyunjoo Jin and Akash Sriram

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 22 (Reuters) – Elon Musk is not giving up on California altogether, saying on Wednesday that Tesla Inc will make the state its global engineering headquarters, even though the electric vehicle maker’s headquarters are now in Texas.

Musk broke the news Wednesday with state Governor Gavin Newsom, and the Tesla CEO later told CNBC that placing the engineering center in California means it’s “actually of a Tesla headquarters”.

In 2010, Tesla acquired a factory from a joint venture between General Motors Co and Toyota Motor Corp in Fremont, Calif., which is still in operation and will increase production this year to more than 600,000 vehicles, Musk said.

Still, Wednesday’s announcement marked a change for the billionaire CEO, who had been a vocal critic of California regulations and taxes after moving Tesla’s official headquarters to Texas in 2021.

The two states oppose each other politically and commercially. California, Democrat-controlled and the most populous state in the United States, has the most electric vehicles and has given Tesla tax breaks as it grows. Texas, on the other hand, is known for its relatively light regulations and is the heart of the country’s oil and gas industry.

Musk previously criticized California for “over-regulation, over-litigation, over-taxation” and in 2020 clashed with local authorities over the closure of the company’s Fremont factory due to COVID-19. 19. Musk said he had voted Democrat in the past, but suggested voting Republican in the 2022 midterm elections. He thanked Newsom, a prominent Democrat, for buying one of Tesla’s first Roadster cars .

“It serves as a reminder of the benefit of building on success in California and suggests that Musk made a strategic mistake in moving his headquarters to Texas,” said Stephen F. Diamond, associate professor of law at Santa University. Clara.

On CNBC on Wednesday, Musk said California should continue to be careful with taxes and regulations.

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing in Spanish by Flora Gomez)