Tesla leaves Texas: roll backwards to California

It was a short trip for Tesla: After a little over a year, the headquarters of the electric vehicle manufacturer is moving back to California from the US state of Texas.

Austin, Texas was home to Tesla for just a year and two months – now it’s going back to California. Tesla boss Elon Musk is pleased to announce that the global engineering headquarters are moving to Palo Alto, in the old headquarters of the tech company Hewlett Packard: “A poetic connection from the company that founded Silicon Valley, to Tesla.” Musk did not announce exactly when the move will take place.

Back after just over a year

Tesla only moved its headquarters from Palo Alto to Austin in December 2021. The reason Musk gave at the time was that the cost of living in Texas was lower for his employees. There is no income tax at state level.

Musk had also complained about what he believed to be the strict corona policy in California. The Tesla boss had partially ignored this and ordered his employees to the Californian production plant, although this was forbidden at the time – Tesla later had to pay a fine for it.

No more quarrels

There was no sign of the disputes between California and Tesla at the press conference. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he is pleased with Tesla’s investment in California, a place with the most patents and capital. Tesla is part of the Californian success story.

Most electric cars are sold in California. Last year, the numbers rose to a record high. With a market share of more than 72 percent, Tesla remains the frontrunner.

Swipe at Germany

Newsom pointed out that California is also the US state that produces the most. If you look at California as a separate country, you are now in fourth place – even ahead of Germany, which the governor emphasized with a half-sentence: “Eat your heart out, Germany”, which could be roughly translated as: “You’re so jealous pale.”

The Tesla plant in Fremont, Northern California, which was unaffected by the move in late 2021, is expected to build about 600,000 Teslas this year, more than other U.S. auto plants, Musk said. At the Tesla plant in Grünheide, Germany, on the other hand, plans to manufacture complete batteries had just been cut back.

Not a word about tax benefits

Whether there were tax incentives to lure Tesla back to California was not mentioned at the press event. One thing is clear: in the competition that California faces with both Germany and the US state of Texas, California should emerge as the winner.

Elon Musk also moved to Texas privately, having previously lived in Los Angeles. Last year he bought the San Francisco-based company Twitter. It is not currently known whether Musk is also moving to California privately.