Tesla production reportedly ‘up and running,’ in defiance of local orders – CNET

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Tesla production is reportedly back online as the automaker appears to defying local stay-at-home orders and putting employees back to work.

Bay Area CBS News affiliate KPIX reported Monday that workers began moving in and out of Tesla's plant in Fremont, California. Photos from local Fox news affiliate KTVU show packed parking lots, further indicating workers had returned Monday morning. One worker dialed into KTVU and told the station he arrived for work at 6 p.m. PT on Sunday with his shift ending 6 a.m. Monday morning.

The worker said Tesla is "up and running" and expressed concerns the plant is not following health guidelines. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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This weekend, Tesla published an announcement declaring it would restart operations after the state gave the green light to bring manufacturing back online. Despite California Governor Gavin Newsom's decision, Alameda County, including Fremont where the plant is located, did not lift its own stay-at-home order. The county said it continued to work with Tesla on Friday, but did not believe it was "appropriate" to send employees back to work yet. The county was supposedly working to give Tesla the green light for May 18.

It led CEO Elon Musk to announce a lawsuit Tesla filed against the county to reopen the assembly plant this weekend. He also declared the automaker's headquarters would relocate to Nevada or Texas and floated the possibility of yanking Tesla production out of California in response to the regulations. Musk has gone as far as calling stay-at-home orders "fascist."

In its return-to-work statement, Tesla detailed the steps it's taking to restart production and underscored it's worked with the county and state governments to bring workers back workers' "health and safety in mind." The 38-page plan also details steps Tesla implemented at its Fremont factory from learnings at its plant in Shanghai — the only other Tesla production plant.