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, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 19 2020, @08:37PM
and why move to Austin if you don't want blue hairs ruining your life? it's the California of TX, ffs.