Tesla defies “shelter-in-place” directive, keeps Fremont factory open

Californian electric car maker Tesla has defied a “shelter-in-place” order initiated by counties across the San Francisco Bay area on an effort to contain the highly contagious Covid-19.

The decision to stay open was communicated to staff by a number of emails that have been shared to media. In one, CEO and co-founder Elon Musk assured staff they should not come to work if they felt ill, to avoid public gatherings and be cautious around family.

“I’d like to be super clear that if you feel the slightest bit ill or even uncomfortable, please do not feel obligated to come to work,” Musk said as reported by CNBC.

“I will personally be at work, but that’s just me. Totally OK if you want to stay home for any reason.”

“Much is made of public gatherings, but please be cautious of family gatherings too,” he said according to CNBC.

“What is relatively harmless to a child can be dangerous to grandparents.”

According a tweet posted this morning (three hours ago at time of writing) by the Alameda County Sheriff, however, Tesla is not considered an “essential business” and therefore is not exempt from the order. Only minimum basic operations may be carried out at the plant for the duration of the order.

However, other reports suggest that Tesla has said Alameda County has considered the EV maker an essential business, as reported by Business Insider (published seven hours ago at the time of writing).

Markets across the globe have been in a free-fall with Wall Street experiencing its largest crash on Tuesday since 1987’s “Black Monday”, and although there has been a significant bounce back bounce back on Washington’s announcement of a coronavirus response, Tesla is still bearing the brunt.

Tesla share values have fallen to pre-2020 levels, closing at $US430.20 ($715.43) on Tuesday, after a record quarter and opening of its Shanghai Gigafactory 3 saw its share value balloon in the first months of 2020 to more than triple its June 2019 lows.

Tesla has sought to keep to business as usual as it reaches its characteristic end-of-quarter production and delivery ramp, even putting in place extra assembly lines in China to expediate localisation of parts as concerns about supply chains grow.

On a personal note, Musk has called for calm amid the growing footprint of Covid-19 infections, tweeting on March 6 that the “coronavirus panic is dumb.”

In an email to staff late Monday (US time), CEO and co-founder Elon Musk expanded on his sentiment, writing in an email to staff on Monday that “My frank opinion remains that the harm from the coronavirus panic far exceeds that of the virus itself.

“If there is a massive redirection of medical resources out of proportion to the danger, it will result in less available care to those with critical medical needs, which does not serve the greater good.”

A tweet posted on Tuesday repeated this call. Musk said, “That said, danger of panic still far exceeds danger of corona imo. If we over-allocate medical resources to corona, it will come at expense of treating other illnesses.”