Report: Tesla plans to build a new car factory in Texas:
Elon Musk's recent clashes with officials in Alameda County, home of Tesla's Fremont factory, may have given him a heightened sense of urgency to find Tesla's next US factory. On Friday, several news outlets reported that Tesla was narrowing in on a new location to build the Model Y crossover and Tesla's forthcoming Cybertruck.
The reports started with Electrek, a pro-Tesla site whose co-founder Fred Lambert has good connections inside the company. Just before 3pm Eastern time, Lambert reported that Tesla had settled on Austin, Texas as the site of its next factory.
"We are told that the decision for the site is not set in stone since Tesla was apparently given a few options in the greater Austin area," Lambert wrote. "But Musk is said to want to start construction extremely soon and aims to have Model Y vehicles coming out of the plant by the end of the year."
That would be a remarkably short amount of time for any car company to build a new factory from scratch. Last year, it took Tesla almost a year to build its Shanghai factory—and that was considered unusually fast.
[...] Hours after Electrek's story ran, three news organizations—TechCrunch, CNBC, and the Associated Press—all published stories stating that Tesla was still considering Tulsa, Oklahoma.
"A final decision has not been made, but Austin and Tulsa are among the finalists," Techcrunch's Kirsten Korosec writes, citing "multiple sources."
[...] Both Texas and Oklahoma have right-to-work laws that allow employees to opt out of paying union dues. These laws could help Tesla discourage workers in its new factory from forming a union. California's laws are more friendly to union organizing.
Elon Musk SpaceX already has two locations in Texas: The Boca Chica site is rapidly ramping up development of Starship and the McGregor location has their rocket testing facility.
Recently:
(2020-05-14) Elon Musk's Boring Company Finishes Digging Las Vegas Tunnels
(2020-05-12) Musk Dares County Officials to Arrest Him as He Reopens Fremont Factory
(2020-05-02) Elon Musk Tweet Wipes $14bn Off Tesla's Value
(2020-04-15) Tesla's Robotaxi Fleet Will be 'Functionally Ready' in 2020, Musk Says
(2020-04-04) Tesla Beats Expectations with Strong First-Quarter Delivery Numbers
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2020, @09:05PM (2 children)
You're welcome. Come try the multicultural food, roadkill and taters must be getting boring by now!
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 18 2020, @09:27PM (1 child)
Since you asked, there are some pretty smart Texans, outside of Austin. Drove around Texarkana today, and there's not a dine-in restaurant open it seemed. Just drive-throughs. Oh, wait, what's that, with all the cars clustered around? A gas station? But the sign says "The Burger Joint". Hmmmm - gotta stop and check it out.
Picture an old - or very old - service station, I suppose from the '40's or '50's. Gas pumps out front, with a big canopy protecting the attendants from the weather. Three service bays, and a nice roomy store front with cashier's counter and stuff. The place has been repurposed a couple of times already, this time around, it's an open-air burger joint. Tables under the canopy, and in the service bays, with a food truck parked right up next to the side door of the cashier's area.
Texans are generally smart enough to work around the idiocy thrown at them from Austin. And, there were no DPS and/or Texas Rangers around trying to close the place down.
(Score: 3, Informative) by captain normal on Monday May 18 2020, @11:36PM
Austin was/is the center of the food truck craze in Texas. They spread out from there to Fort Worth and Dallas and north to Odessa and Midland and south to Houston. If they're in Texarkana now, hell they're probably already in Little Rock. You better look around they might be following you to Ft. Smith.
https://www.austinchronicle.com/events/food/food-events/atx-food-truck-festival-2220735/ [austinchronicle.com]
UH oh...too late, they're already there!
https://www.foodtrucksin.com/city/fort-smith_ar [foodtrucksin.com]
https://www.facebook.com/rvfoodtrucks/ [facebook.com]
When life isn't going right, go left.