Cybertruck Factory

Tesla CEO Elon Musk Talks To Gov. Abbott About Giga Texas

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Texas Governor Greg Abbott talked over the weekend about the company's possible move from the Golden State to the Lone Star State. Musk had revealed his intentions of moving Tesla's operations to Texas after Alameda County refused to lift its shutdown order on the company's main facility. Recently, Alameda County showed its intention to allow the Fremont factory to reopen, but it may not mean Tesla's Gigafactory Texas project will be scrapped. 

According to Reuters, a spokesperson for the Governor of Texas confirmed that Gov. Abbott and Elon Musk discussed Tesla's business in the state over the weekend. "I've had the opportunity to talk to Elon Musk and he's genuinely interested in Texas and genuinely frustrated with California," said the Governor of Texas. "We've just got to wait and see how things play out."

After Gov. Abbott's talk with Elon Musk was reported, Alameda County issued a statement indicating that the Fremont factory may be permitted to reopen as early as next week. It must be noted that the two events may not be correlated, but merely occurred one after the other. As of this writing, Elon Musk and Tesla have remained quiet about Alameda County's response. Musk has not retracted the possibility of Tesla moving its headquarters to Texas either. 

Tesla's possible move to Texas was openly welcomed by Gov. Abbott and Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez. In fact, Judge Cortez penned a letter directly to Musk enumerating the opportunities Tesla would have if it moved to Hidalgo County in Texas. 

"We have a community of manufacturing facilities called maquiladoras that operate on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, based in Hidalgo County, which caters to automobile manufacturing operations in Monterrey, Mexico--a short two hours away and contributed to Mexico now being the fourth largest automotive exporter in the world," wrote Judge Cortez in his letter to Elon Musk. 

Both Abbott and Cortez seem to have made strong arguments for Tesla to move to Texas. But Alameda County's recent response to the Fremont factory's reopening may have changed the situation. If the situation develops positively for Tesla, the company may stay in California and continue its operations in Fremont. 

However, Giga Texas may still be a possibility. Even before its struggle with Alameda County, Tesla was planning to announce the location of its new Gigafactory, which is expected to produce the Cybertruck. During the last TSLA Earnings Call, Musk estimated that Tesla could announce the new Gigafactory's location as early as next month. Texas could still be in the running for Tesla's new Gigafactory, especially since Gov. Abbott and Judge Cortez have been proactive in showing the company the benefits of building a factory in their state.

Featured Image Credit:  Now You Know/YouTube

About the Author

Ma. Claribelle Deveza

Ma. Claribelle Deveza

Longtime writer and news/book editor. Writing about Tesla allows me to contribute something good to the world, while doing something I love.

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