Tesla on Nightly Business Report - Model X factory in Texas?

I think they're doing stuff with SpaceX in Texas... maybe he got them confused...

The pictures were of Tesla products, but the representative talking about Texas was from Flextronics, a PCB and systems assembler with locations worldwide (and several in Texas).

Room_A113 said:

It's ironic that the Flextronic CEO points to Texas and North Carolina as states that have business-friendly governments.

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It's natural to think these places are friendly to business because that's what they keep harping on, over and over. As if merely repeating it ad nauseum will somehow make it true. However, the fine print is that they are only friendly to businesses that align with them politically (anti-big government, in favor of deregulation). This is what the ongoing fight with Tesla proves. Politicians and their lobbies don't believe in it or its mission, so they are more than willing to let a genuine American company that employs thousands of Americans in an industry widely associated with the "American Dream" be squeezed out of their "business-friendly" states and suffocated. Hypocrites.
/soapbox

Tesla's current factory is running at about 10% of its VOLUME capacity. I cannot imagine any reason to build a new facility anywhere until all 3 models are up running and the factory is pushing out about 200k vehicles per year. Lets just hope they get to that place. Then if there was worldwide demand that exceeded those numbers, they would be looking for another facility.

Rick Perry recently went on a tour of California. He made all kinds of speeches in which he blasted California's taxes and regulations. He explicitly stated that he was on a tour of California to try to convince businesses to relocate from California to Texas, and to take jobs from CA and move them to Tx.

When the Enron scandal broke (Enron=Texas company), emails were leaked about how awesome it was that they lobbied CA politicians to deregulate the Electricity market in CA during the 90's, so that Enron could siphon middleman money from CA to TX.

The reason the TX legislature (a dysfunctional institution that sometimes has to be convened at gunpoint by the Texas Rangers) is so anti Tesla, is that Tesla is a California company. For all the Nationalistic sentiment you hear from Texans, they really do have loyalty to Texas first. If they can poach from other states, they're happy to. A lot of them openly wish that they were independent from the US, and they have petitioned en masse to seceed on the whitehouse.gov website.

Don't be surprised when TX does these things. They've been doing it for years.

TFMethane said:

Rick Perry recently went on a tour of California..

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One good thing about Rick Perry, he is definitely not anti electric car. Here's a video of him giving a speech on the subject. (skip to about 4:00 for Rick Perry)

Elon did tease that they might build a Tesla truck in Texas. They should call it the Triple T.

Interestingly, former interim Tesla CEO Michael Marks was also a CEO of Flextronics.

doug said:

Elon did tease that they might build a Tesla truck in Texas. They should call it the Triple T.

Interestingly, former interim Tesla CEO Michael Marks was also a CEO of Flextronics.

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I would find it surprising if Tesla started making cars there given that they can't sell direct in Texas. Maybe that will be a negotiation point. It sends the wrong message if they give revenue to Texas via the plant, but then can't sell the cars there.

I think the point of the tease was in fact a negotiation tactic.

doug said:

Elon did tease that they might build a Tesla truck in Texas. They should call it the Triple T.

Interestingly, former interim Tesla CEO Michael Marks was also a CEO of Flextronics.

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Or put a 150 kWh battery in it and call it the T-150. Ford would probably be a little... upset.