"We are shocked, upset and betrayed. We can see why the public is so upset with corporate America," Downey City Councilman Mario Guerra told the Los Angeles Times about Tesla choosing Fremont as the place for its new plant. Wahh! And so ends months of speculation that Tesla was going to either Downey or Long Beach. Downey officials claim that even as of last Friday, Palo Alto-based Tesla was saying LA County would be the home of their new electric-car plant. "It is a big loss. We really needed those job[s]," Downey's city manager told the Times. Fremont will now reportedly get 1,000 jobs when the factory opens in 2012. Tesla recently received a $50 million investment from Toyota, and the Fremont factory picked to house Tesla is a former Toyota/GM plant.
The news isn't all bad for southern California, the Times reports that Santa Monica-based Coda Auto plans to start building electric cars either in LA or Oxnard. Fisker Auto, which makes an $87,000 plug-in car, is moving its engineering and sales office to Irvine next year. The Chinese electro-car maker BYD is movin' on up to the Westside and establishing its US HQ in LA next year. In case you're wondering, the Tesla's Model S (pictured) will cost more than the soon-to-debut Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf, but is sportier and faster and gets 160 to 300 miles per gallon. Suck it, BP!
· Tesla to Build Electric Cars in Northern California Plant [LA Times]
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