Tesla is moving its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas, CEO Elon Musk confirmed at a shareholder meeting.
However, Musk insisted the company was not cutting off its tie with the California plant, and revealed plans to increase production there.
Musk said: “To be clear we will be continuing to expand our activities in California. Our intention is to increase output from Fremont and Giga Nevada by 50%. If you go to our Fremont factory it’s jammed.”
Musk said the cost of housing in the Bay Area has made it tough for many people to become homeowners and that translated into long commutes.
“We’re taking it as far as possible, but there’s a limit how big you can scale it in the Bay Area,” he said. “Just to be clear, though, we will be continuing to expand our activities in California. This is not a matter of leaving California.”
“It’s tough for people to afford houses, and people have to come in from far away….There’s a limit to how big you can scale in the Bay Area.”
In April 2020, during a Tesla earnings call, Musk had lashed out at California government officials calling their temporary Covid-related health orders ‘fascist’ in an expletive-laced rant.
Musk had then relocated to Austin himself, a move that reduced his personal tax and also helped him be closer to his aerospace company SpaceX, which has a launch site in Boca Chica. California has some of the highest personal income taxes in the US.
Tesla follows in the footsteps of companies like Oracle and Hewlett Packard, who have moved their headquarters out of California to Texas.
