Fremont is home to Tesla, the world’s most valuable auto manufacturer. Even if it opens corporate mail in Austin, Texas, Fremont is where Tesla models S, X and 3 were born, and it’s the center of its North American manufacturing operations. According to the City of Fremont’s 2024/25 Operating Budget, the Tesla plant is “the highest volume vehicle manufacturing plant in North America.”
The city’s largest employer is being hammered because of the political activities of its CEO and largest shareholder, Elon Musk, who happens to be the world’s richest man. He is also the founder of companies that launch rockets into space, maintain a space-based global communications network, drill underground tunnels, distribute information via one of the largest social media companies and receive billions of dollars in government contracts.
In December, Tesla hit a peak market cap of around $1.5 trillion, though it has lost nearly half its value since then. Much of that is due to backlash against Elon Musk’s role in dismantling chunks of the federal government, supporting deportations, bankrolling MAGA political campaigns, unshackling racist and antisemitic commenters on X.com and flashing a straight-armed gesture while not clearly disavowing its resemblance to a Nazi salute.
Tesla revenues have dropped, and some owners have dumped their cars. In January, sales in Europe fell 45%, though there are signs of rebound. Photos of burning Teslas are lighting up social media. Dealerships and cars have been torched, keyed, graffitied and otherwise criminally vandalized.
The market reaction to Musk’s dive into politics may have resulted in an unprecedented value squander, but Tesla is still more than seven times more valuable than Ford and GM—put together.
General Motors responded last week at the Nvidia GPT Conference in San Jose with an announcement that it would use Nvidia’s Blackwell Technology to create autonomous vehicles and manufacturing plants powered by robotic assembly lines.
Tesla contributes a considerable amount of tax revenue, including property taxes, utility user taxes and sales taxes from associated business operations to the city, county and state. According to Tesla, more than 2 million vehicles have been produced in Fremont. Tesla says $400 million annually went to state and local taxes in 2021. It also boosts an ecosystem of local suppliers, contractors and local businesses that benefit from Tesla employees and business activities.
While Tesla is a significant force in the city’s economy, Fremont is not a one-company town. It is part of a diversified ecosystem that keeps the region prosperous, and Tesla is too deeply invested in Fremont to go anywhere soon. Nonetheless, the tumult at Tesla bears watching, and how it plays out will give Fremont residents a front row seat to history.
A shorter version of this piece appeared in the March 25-31 print edition of the Tri-City Voice.
