The Alameda county in Fremont, California has allowed Tesla to restart its operations next week, according to an official notice shared by the county.
The order was issued by Alameda, where Tesla’s Fremont Gigafactory is located, after the automaker shared a detailed restart plan that included how it plans to take care of its employees’ health and safety from COVID-19.
Alameda had insisted on getting this plan from the carmaker before it would allow it to ramp up from its minimal business activity at present to full-fledged operations next week.
Tesla, however, gradually began restarting its plants, despite these orders, after the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom issued guidance affirming the restart of manufacturing operations. Newsom had left the final decision to green light such restarts on individual counties, prompting Alameda county to insist on a detailed restart plan from Tesla.
In its notice giving permission to the EV maker, the county mentioned it has come to an agreement with the company to ensure safety measures even while transporting employees to the plant and is satisfied that the company will comply with the safety plan it shared with the county on May 9.
Having received the order, Tesla plans to begin its full-scale operations as early as Monday, May 18, according to media reports.
Tesla’s Gigafactory in California is the company’s flagship manufacturing unit with the capacity to produce 90,000 Model S/X units and 400,000 Model 3/Y units. The company plans to ramp up the latter to 500,000 units at the facility in 2020.