Elon Musk threatens to move Tesla out of California - MarketWatch

Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted Saturday he will move the Silicon Valley car maker’s headquarters and operations out of California as the company’s main car-making factory remains closed.

Musk also made good on a threat to sue Alameda County, where Tesla’s TSLA, +5.04% Fremont car-making plant is located. Hours after tweeting that he will relocate, Musk filed a lawsuit in federal district court seeking an injunction to allow for the reopening of the Fremont site.

He argued that the county where the factory is located has overreached and not uniformly applied its own rules to Tesla, which should have been allowed to stay open. “Alameda County’s power grab not only defies the governor’s orders, but offends the federal and California constitutions,” the lawsuit alleged.

Local health authorities on Friday foiled Tesla’s plans to start reopening the factory, clarifying that, despite the reopening of some nonessential businesses elsewhere in the state, their own shutdown order prevailed.

Alameda County and five other San Francisco Bay Area counties were among the first in the U.S. to issue a shelter-in-place order to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The order is in effect through May.

In a statement late Friday, Alameda County health officials said that, as it has done with many other businesses, it has informed Tesla of the conditions that must be in place for a phased local reopening in certain cases. Tesla has been informed it does not meet the criteria and it must not reopen, the officials said.

Musk has railed against shutdown orders on Twitter and on the most recent Tesla conference call to discuss quarterly results.

Tesla shares have gained 239% in the past 12 months, comparing with gains of 2.1% for the S&P 500 index SPX, +1.68% in the same period.

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