REPORT: Downey, CA mayor claims Tesla Model S plant deal 99.9% done
by Sam Abuelsamid on Nov 24th 2009 at 8:01AM 
Tesla Model S – Click above for high-res image gallery
When Tesla Motors does get around to building its second product, the Model S, it intends to build the body and chassis in-house unlike the Roadster that is largely assembled by Lotus. To do that, the company has been looking for a location for a factory, and it may have finally done that.
Mario Guerra, mayor of Downey, California – a place rumored to be a possibility for the plant – said on Monday that the deal is 99.9 percent done. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said on several occasions that the most likely plant location is somewhere in southern California and Downey is midway between Los Angeles and Long Beach. The proposed location is a former movie studio. The one possible issue with this plan is that Tesla would be using funds from the DOE-administered ATVM program. That program was intended to help pay for the redevelopment of existing car plants to build new clean vehicles. The fact that the Downey location is not an existing plant may or may not be a problem. The Downey city council is expected to vote on the plan on Tuesday.
Gallery: Tesla Model S in motion
[Source: The Downey Patriot]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jimbo 8:27AM (11/24/2009)
I bet they could buy NUMMI for cheap. Of course, then they'd have to deal with the UAW...
Reply
Throwback 9:13AM (11/24/2009)
They may have to anyway, unless they plan to not hire any former UAW members.
Jimbo 8:33AM (11/25/2009)
You can hire union employees but not be a union shop. Do you not think Toyota, Honda, and the other transplants don't have UAW members working for them? But that doesn't make them a union shop. People in non-union shops are free to join a union if they wish. It would be illegal to stop them. But Tesla and the transplants don't have to hire exclusively UAW members or force new hires to become UAW members like the Big 3 has to. One of the many problems with the UAW is that once a shop is unionized, it's always unionized. That means that if someone buys NUMMI to build vehicles, they will be bound by the UAW like the Big 3.
Nick From Montreal 10:00AM (11/24/2009)
Sam, you got the story backward: the Long Beach site was an old movie studio while the Downey site is an old aerospace manufacturing facility. Read the story here:
http://thedistrictweekly.com/2009/daily/writing-shotgun/tesla-chooses-downey-over-long-beach-as-factory-site/
Great news anyway.
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Doug 12:35PM (11/24/2009)
Actually, they're both former aerospace manufacturing facilities. Just that in Long Beach, Tesla has been competing for the former Boeing site with the proposed Long Beach Studios. Downey already has a movie studio, Downey Studios. But the proposed location in Downey is a former NASA site. Hence the confusion.