Tesla Resumes Production In California Defying Lockdown Order

BY Brad Anderson | Posted on

Tesla resumed production at its factory in Fremont, California over the weekend, despite lockdown orders in Alameda County where the facility is located, The Verge reports.

According to two Tesla workers who spoke with The Verge on the condition of anonymity, the electric automaker completed around 200 Model Y and Model 3 vehicles over the weekend. This came while Elon Musk revealed on Twitter that Tesla has sued Alameda County for its stay-at-home order and vowed to move the automaker’s operations out of California.

In a tweet, Musk confirmed “Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules. I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.”

Alameda County’s Public Health Department said in a statement that it has been waiting for Tesla to submit a plan on how it will reopen its factory and has previously told Tesla it can only keep minimum operations running at the Fremont factory until the plan is approved.

On Saturday, Alameda County officials said they were “communicating directly and working closely with the Tesla team on the ground in Fremont,” and were engaged in “a collaborative, good faith effort to develop and implement a safety plan that allows for reopening while protecting the health and well-being of the thousands of employees who travel to and from work at Tesla’s factory.”

Alameda County supervisor Scott Haggerty revealed to The New York Times that health officials and Tesla had been close to an agreement for the factory to reopen on May 18th before Musk’s tweets over the weekend.

“We were working on a lot of policies and procedures to help operate that plant and quite frankly, I think Tesla did a pretty good job, and that’s why I had it to the point where on May 18, Tesla would have opened,” Haggerty said. “I know Elon knew that. But he wanted it this week.”

CNBC reports that Tesla reached out to employees last Friday to schedule shifts over the weekend.

In a statement regarding whether the lockdown order will be enforced, Alameda County said “if Tesla violates the order, it would be Fremont Police Department’s decision to enforce or not enforce.”

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