Dive Brief:
- Tesla has relocated its corporate headquarters to Austin, Texas, per a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained by Construction Dive. The new headquarters is on the site of the company's "Gigafactory," which is still under construction.
- Co-founder and CEO Elon Musk indicated that Tesla would move from Palo Alto, California, to Texas during a shareholder meeting Oct. 7 presented at the facility.
- Tesla began the megaproject in summer 2020, and hopes to finish it by the end of this 2021, Business Insider reported. The company plans to spend more than $1.06 billion on the project by the time it is finished.
Dive Insight:
Tesla is the most recent in the line of many companies to have left California for Texas, including AECOM, Oracle and Hewlett Packard. Musk fought California over coronavirus policies and income tax laws, Business Insider reported, which may have led to the company's departure as well.
Construction of the factory, meanwhile, is progressing as planned, Musk said during the shareholder meeting in October. When finished, the factory will produce Tesla Cybertrucks (pictured above) and Semis, in addition to Model 3 and Model Y cars. Tesla has factories in California and Nevada, in addition to a completed Gigafactory in Shanghai and another under construction near Berlin.
Work to build the facility began in September 2020, and the site of the new headquarters is part of the 2,000-acre facility, according to CNBC. The finished plant will have more than 4.2 million square feet of floor space.
Delivering more Tesla vehicles is part of Musk's plan to solve traffic and create more sustainable transportation. When it comes to advancing infrastructure, Musk recently pointed to improving airports, increasing tunnels and building double-decker highways, during The Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit.
Nevertheless, the Road Show reported that Musk spoke out against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which is set to pour billions into infrastructure spending. Specifically, Musk called out the effort to build charging stations for electric vehicles, saying that the subsidies aren't necessary and the government should "delete" them.
