Tesla is moving its global engineering headquarters to the former Hewlett Packard campus in Palo Alto, it announced during a press conference with CEO Elon Musk and Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday.
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"I couldn't be more proud of California's commitment to support Tesla over the course of the last few decades. It's demonstrable in terms of policy, in terms of direction, more broadly. An interesting regulation, dare I say, for all its good and evil, depending on which side you are on. But the regulatory framework accelerated the investment, accelerated with some certainty that this was the direction we were going," Newsom said, saying that Tesla is a California company.
"Let's see this as something more extraordinary in the journey to dominate in this space and change the way we produce and consumer energy in this stat and in this nation and the world we're trying to build," Newsom also said.
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CEO Musk noted that Tesla's Fremont-based manufacturing plant has the highest automotive production output in North America.
"So we'll probably do 600,000 or more cars this year, if all things considered go well," Musk said. "To your (Newsom's) point, California is a tremendous manufacturer as well as a place of engineering and innovation."
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Musk said he looks forward to a partnership with the state and transitioning the world to sustainable energy as quickly as possible.
Today's announcement comes 15 months after Tesla moved its main headquarters from Palo Alto to Austin, Texas.
Musk has previously criticized California for over regulation and taxation.