After years of threats, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is finally moving the electric vehicle company out of its home state in California and deep into the heart of Texas.
At its annual shareholder meeting held at the under-construction Gigafactory in Austin, Musk announced that the EV company would officially move its headquarters to the Texas capital. Presumably, the transition will happen once the factory is ready for production.
“I’m excited to announce we’re moving our headquarters to Austin, Texas,” he said to cheers.
Tesla’s headquarters have been based in Palo Alto, California in the heart of Silicon Valley since the early 2000s, while its main production facility is in nearby Fremont, California.
Musk assured shareholders and employees that the Fremont plant’s operations would still continue and that vehicle output would increase as much as 50 percent in the coming years.
“This isn’t a matter of Tesla leaving California,” he said, stating that Model X and S production would continue at the Fremont plant.
Musk also said the Fremont factory “is jammed” and that it’s hard for employees to afford housing in the Bay Area.
Gigafactory Austin will be where the delayed Cybertruck will eventually be made. The new plant is expected to be finished by the end of this year with car production starting in 2022.
Musk spends a lot of time in Texas because of his rocket company SpaceX and claims Tesla is now building an “ecological paradise” at the Texas campus.
Musk had previously threatened to move his company out of the state as a result of pandemic restrictions that kept the Tesla Fremont factory closed. Now it’s official.
You can watch Musk make the announcement around the 1 hour mark:
