A number of months in the past, every little thing gave the impression to be going Elon Musk’s approach, as he presided over an upstart electrical
A number of months in the past, every little thing gave the impression to be going Elon Musk’s approach, as he presided over an upstart electrical automotive firm that was value greater than Common Motors, Ford Motor and Fiat Chrysler mixed.
That firm, Tesla, had reported income two quarters in a row, proving that it might earn cash even because it grew. Its inventory was surging. Mr. Musk opened a manufacturing facility in China and was planning one other in Germany. And his different enterprise, SpaceX, was poised to change into the primary to ferry NASA astronauts to orbit from American soil since 2011, a trip scheduled for the end of this month.
But the coronavirus set Mr. Musk off. Society’s response to the pandemic was “dumb” and a “panic,” he said, arguing that the threat is overstated. And government stay-at-home orders were, in his view, unnecessarily stalling his plans to revolutionize the auto industry and help solve climate change. He attacked local officials in the San Francisco Bay Area for not letting him reopen Tesla’s factory, which he did this week anyway, in defiance of their instructions.
Mr. Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur who co-founded PayPal, has always been volatile. His latest attacks and statements have raised questions about Tesla’s financial health and his own judgment, but they also reflect a recognition of the influence he wields as one of the technology industry’s best-known iconoclasts.
“This is somebody who knows that what he says gets heard across the globe, and tries to make a point about why he doesn’t take system-level constraints as a given,” said Rahul Kapoor, a professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
Mr. Musk’s anger was stoked in March when local officials ordered Tesla to close its factory, in Fremont, Calif., just as the company was poised to accelerate production of a highly anticipated new sport utility vehicle, the Model Y.
In October, the company announced a quarterly profit, a sign that it had solved production problems. Tesla’s stock began a long, astonishing rally. Shares peaked at $917 in February, up from $350 only three months before. Despite suffering along with the broader market in March and April, the stock was trading at about $780 a share on Wednesday, valuing the company at about $145 billion. By contrast, investors value G.M., which produces many more cars than Tesla, at less than $31 billion.
By March, Tesla was on a tear. Despite being slowed by the outbreak in China, the new Shanghai factory had reopened. In Europe, Tesla’s Model 3 sedan was outselling cars made by automakers like Volkswagen. The carmaker had just begun deliveries of the Model Y, which starts at about $53,000, in the ballpark of comparable S.U.V.s from BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
But Mr. Musk’s dreams of dominating the car industry were put on hold when Alameda County forced the Fremont plant, which brings in most of the company’s revenue, to shut down in late March.
Mr. Musk resisted closing the plant, and in a late-April call with analysts called stay-at-home orders “fascist.” “They’re breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are wrong and are not why people came here or built this country,” said Mr. Musk, who is a native of South Africa.
That week, he posted several odd messages on Twitter. Tesla’s stock was “too high,” he said, and added that he would sell “almost all physical possessions,” including his homes.
A few days later, Mr. Musk said his new son would be named “X Æ A-12” Musk. He and his girlfriend, the singer and songwriter Claire Boucher, better known as Grimes, have offered differing pronunciations of the name.
Last week, Mr. Musk’s anger about the factory boiled over, and he threatened to move the factory out of California and sued the county in federal court. On Monday, Mr. Musk officially reopened the Fremont plant, to the frustration of some workers and county officials who had been negotiating a reopening plan with Tesla for weeks.
“I will be on the line with everyone else,” he wrote on Twitter on Monday. “If anybody is arrested, I ask that it solely be me.”
Later that day, the county requested Tesla to stop operations till it reached an settlement with native officers. On Tuesday, the county said it had reviewed the plan and “held productive discussions” with Tesla. The county mentioned that it had made security suggestions and that if Tesla included them and public well being circumstances didn’t worsen, the corporate might reopen subsequent week.
County officers didn’t recommend that they’d maintain Tesla to account for ignoring the order, however famous that the Fremont police would confirm that Tesla was adhering to security measures as staff “put together for full manufacturing.”
On Tuesday, vans had been leaving the manufacturing facility carrying vehicles and S.U.V.s as masked staff milled about. New vehicles had been additionally parked in rows exterior. The car parking zone for workers was full.
Tesla and Mr. Musk didn’t reply to requests for remark.
President Trump, who has been pushing states to permit companies to restart, voiced help for Mr. Musk, writing on Twitter on Tuesday that California ought to let Tesla reopen the plant “NOW.”
However the president’s assertion is unlikely to sway California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, who has deferred to counties on such points. The state has licensed manufacturing, however Mr. Newsom mentioned Monday that “if a county doesn’t wish to go as far,” native orders would prevail.
Mr. Musk’s choice to reopen the manufacturing facility has put workers in a troublesome place.
In an electronic mail despatched on Monday, the corporate advised workers that they could stay dwelling however wouldn’t be paid if that they had already used up their day without work and may additionally lose unemployment advantages, as decided by native authorities companies. On Wednesday, the corporate mentioned workers who selected to not go in wouldn’t be penalized.
A number of Tesla workers, who requested to talk anonymously for concern of retribution, mentioned the corporate was placing a precedence on income over folks.
One man who labored on the manufacturing facility on Tuesday mentioned the corporate had checked workers’ temperatures firstly of his shift, distributed masks and rearranged a break room. However, he mentioned, little had modified on the manufacturing line, the place it’s laborious to keep away from coming inside six toes of others.
Because the manufacturing facility reopened, Mr. Musk thanked workers for making “the manufacturing facility come again to life.”
“I’ve vastly extra respect for somebody who takes satisfaction in doing job,” he mentioned in an electronic mail, “regardless of the career, than some wealthy or well-known one who does nothing helpful.”
Jim Wilson contributed reporting.