Defiant Musk boosts production of Teslas
FREMONT, Calif. — Tesla’s Elon Musk is in a showdown with state officials over the reopening of a major factory, one of the most prominent examples of a powerful business defying health orders that require all but essential activities to cease.
Musk continued to boost production at the company’s Fremont facilities Tuesday, where the firm produces its electric vehicles. Workers’ cars filled the company’s parking lot, with no signs of any enforcement actions by Alameda County officials, who sent a letter Monday telling the company to cease production.
Musk drew public support Tuesday from President Donald Trump. “California should let Tesla & @elonmusk open the plant, NOW,” Trump tweeted. “It can be done Fast & Safely!”
Musk tweeted back, “Thank you!”
That follows a private call with the president and other CEOs last month, on which Musk was agitating to reopen and praising Trump. He said he wanted to return to work by May 1 and, if possible, sooner.
“I do not think it represents a significant risk,” he said, according to two individuals familiar with the discussion, who declined to be named because of the private nature of the interaction.
Trump said that he agreed with
Musk 100 percent, the people added.
Meanwhile, Musk on Monday dared local health officials to arrest him.
“Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules,” Musk wrote on Twitter. “I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.”
Colleen Chalwa, Health Care Services Agency director of Alameda County, sent a letter Monday ordering Tesla to cease production.
“If the reports we have received are true, Tesla is engaging in work beyond Minimum Basic Operations, and is in violation of the Health Officer Order,” she wrote.
It was the latest escalation following the company’s decision to start calling workers back to the factory last week.
Tesla on Saturday filed suit against Alameda County, where its Fremont factory is located, seeking an injunction against orders to stay closed.
Neetu Balram, a spokeswoman for Alameda County, said in a statement that the county hoped to work with Tesla to avoid any further escalation of the issue.
Fremont police would need to enforce the county’s order. Fremont police spokeswoman Geneva Bosques said there was no update Tuesday. The city’s mayor issued a statement in support of Tesla on Saturday.
In an interview, Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty added that while dialogue continues with Musk, “I can’t stop him from breaking the health order.”
He credited the county’s tough stance in part with the low prevalence of the illness in the county, roughly 2,000 cases and 71 deaths.
On the possibility of arrests,
Haggerty said, “I would sincerely hope not.”
Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment. The company employs about 10,000 workers in Fremont.
Two workers at Tesla’s Fremont facilities, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared for their jobs, said they were concerned about the sudden escalation of production.
One worker who reported to the factory over the weekend said people gathered in groups and there was little enforcement of social distancing practices.
Returning workers are shown an informational video about the need to abide by strict social distancing and given masks. Meanwhile, the factory began once again to churn out Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.
“Everybody’s walking around without their mask on, talking, hanging out talking among themselves,” the worker said. “It’s scary.”
Musk’s aggressive push to reopen has gained the tacit support of conservatives aligned with the president and drawn the ire of liberals, including a California state assemblywoman who punctuated her displeasure with an expletive over the weekend.
Earlier that day, Musk tweeted that he was considering relocating Tesla’s Palo Alto headquarters, located in another California county, to Texas or Nevada, and lambasted Alameda County’s response.