Is Tesla going to be manufacturing more cars or car parts at a new facility?
The electric car company won’t comment specifically, but city officials in tiny Lathrop, Calif., say work is underway converting a 431,000-square-foot facility that once housed a Chrysler-Daimler distribution center into a Tesla factory.
Lathrop City Manager Steve Salvatore, confirming the arrival of Tesla in his small town of 19,000, said the company had indicated it will be hiring 100 to 125 workers, to start, and is likely to hire more.
“We’re very excited about it,” Salvatore said. “We’ve been working with the Tesla Group for the last several months, and now they’ve pulled the trigger.”
Salvatore said Tesla had not told him exactly what it would do with the facility — “I believe it’s car-related,” he said — but that work being done at the location, which has been vacant since 2009, suggests that manufacturing, not warehousing or distribution, will take place there.