Elon Musk isn’t giving up on California entirely, saying Wednesday that Tesla Inc. will make the state its global engineering home, even though the electric vehicle maker’s corporate headquarters are now in Texas.
Musk announced the news on Wednesday, along with the state’s governor Gavin Newsom, and later the Tesla CEO told CNBC that putting the engineering hub in California means it is “effectively Tesla’s headquarters.”
Musk said in 2010 Tesla acquired a plant in Fremont, California, from a joint venture between General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp., which still operates and which will increase production to more than 600,000 vehicles this year.
Still, Wednesday’s announcement marks a turnaround for the billionaire CEO, who has harshly criticized California’s regulations and taxes after Tesla moved its official corporate headquarters to Texas in 2021.