Because a California county is preventing Tesla from reopening its plant, “The County’s position left us no choice but to take legal action,” Tesla announced Saturday. Reuters reports:
Tesla filed a lawsuit against the county in San Francisco federal court on Saturday, calling the continued restrictions a “power-grab” by the county since California’s governor had said on Thursday that manufacturers in the state would be allowed to reopen…. The county said it does not consider Tesla an essential business. County officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

The outspoken Musk also took to Twitter on Saturday to complain and threatened to leave the state. “If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependen (sp) on how Tesla is treated in the future,” he tweeted, referring to the San Francisco Bay area facility that is Tesla’s only U.S. vehicle factory.

One member of the California state government’s Assembly tweeted a three-word response: “F*ck Elon Musk.” Then they followed it up with a longer tweet. “I’m tired of subsidizing a company that continues to put workers at risk, union busts & bullies public servants.”

And an Inc. magazine columnist argues “Elon Musk is bluffing… Tesla isn’t going anywhere,” calling Musk’s remarks “mostly a personality-driven publicity stunt by a tech billionaire.”
Building a new manufacturing facility from the ground up, or even retrofitting an existing plant isn’t something that happens quickly… [Reuters cited an analyst at Wedbush who estimated that relocating Tesla’s production would take between 12 and 18 months.] Obviously, no one can fault Musk for being frustrated that Tesla is unable to reopen its factory. Continuing as a business when you’re unable to actually build the products you sell is no easy task. And Tesla’s founder and CEO hasn’t been shy about his feelings towards the Covid-19 lockdown…
Right now, however, Tesla’s biggest problem isn’t that it can’t turn the assembly lines back on. Right now, its biggest problem is that it’s hard to tell when to take its leader seriously. If, for example, GM’s CEO, Mary Barra, said that the company was frustrated with how Michigan was handling the coronavirus pandemic and was moving the company’s HQ out of the state as a result, it would be astonishing news. Thousands of people would worry about their jobs; the state would have seek to address the comment. In other words, people would take it seriously.

Not so, Musk’s tweets, which are met with head shakes and smirks. That’s a big deal, now more than ever.

of this story at Slashdot.

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Source:: Slashdot