Hyperdrive
How Tesla Fought to Keep Its Plant Open in a Locked-Down City
- Company believed factory was essential, could keep running
- Documents reveal the extent of city and county’s pushback
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Tesla Inc.’s lone U.S. assembly plant posed a risk to public health by staying open for days in spite of San Francisco Bay area shelter-in-place orders, according to obtained through a California public records request.
Officials with the city of Fremont, California, told Tesla in a series of conversations over several days that its factory was not considered an essential business, and that it therefore needed to comply with an Alameda County order issued March 16. The electric-car maker announced March 19 that it would suspend production four days later.