Tesla to move headquarters to Texas, says Elon Musk

Tesla is going to Texas.

The electric car company will move its headquarters from Palo Alto, Calif., To Lone Star state, the company’s CEO Elon Musk said Thursday.

“I am delighted to announce that we are moving our corporate headquarters to Austin, Texas,” Musk said at a meeting of shareholders to applause.

“Just to be clear though, we will continue to expand our business in California,” Musk added. “So it’s not a question, in a way, that Tesla is leaving California.”

The company is still looking to boost production at its Fremont, Calif., And Nevada plant by 50%, the eccentric billionaire said. But expansion opportunities are limited in the Golden State, and the cost of living is a barrier, he said.

“It’s hard for people to afford a house and a lot of people have to come from far away,” Musk said. “We’re going as far as we can get, but there’s a limit to how big you can get in the Bay Area.”

The Austin plant will be five minutes from the airport and 15 minutes from downtown, he said.

Musk, also the frontman of SpaceX, himself recently moved from California to Texas. His head office move announcement comes a year after he first threatened to move Tesla to Texas or Nevada amid a scuffle with state health officials over COVID-restrictions. 19.

The company was told it could not reopen its factory last year while the coronavirus shutdown measures were still in effect.

“Frankly, this is the last straw,” Musk said on Twitter at the time. “Tesla will now immediately move its headquarters and future programs to Texas / Nevada. If we even keep Fremont’s manufacturing business, it will depend on how Tesla is treated in the future. “

He then defied lockdown orders and ordered production to restart in California until officials agreed to reopen the company’s facilities with security measures in place.