The county hasn’t yet said how it will react. In a discussion with the New York Times, however, district supervisor Scott Haggerty said that the county had been near an agreement to restart production on May 18th after determining Tesla had done a “pretty good job” of implementing safety measures. Musk just wasn’t willing to wait, Haggerty said — in fact, he wanted to reopen the factory on May 8th.

There’s little doubt that Tesla is under pressure to resume production. While the company had stellar first quarter earnings and could partly buoy the second quarter through deliveries of already-produced EVs, time is running out. At a certain point, it has to make new cars to avoid a huge shortfall.

Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules. I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2020

The entrepreneur has made his displeasure with the Fremont shutdown clear on more than one occasion, including on Twitter and in a profanity-laced outburst in an earning call where he called lockdown safety measures an attack on freedom.

We’ve asked the company if it can elaborate on Musk’s statements. If he follows through, however, it could significantly affect the automotive and technology industries. It’d leave California without a major car maker, as Musk suggested, while boosting Tesla’s presence in Nevada. It could hurt Tesla’s ability to hire new staff in the process, mind you. The company has poached staff from tech companies in the San Francisco Bay Area that might not have needed to relocate at all. While this does reduce the chances of companies ‘stealing’ Tesla employees, the EV maker could have a harder time recruiting workers without immediate access to Silicon Valley talent.

Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependen on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in CA.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2020

The Alameda County had initially deemed Tesla’s 10,000-employee plant an essential business, allowing it to stay open and fully staffed despite the shelter in place order, but quickly reversed that decision when challenged by reporters.

“We have followed and are continuing to follow all legal directions and safety guidelines with respect to the operations of our facilities, and have honored the Federal Government’s direction to continue operating,” the company stated in a Thursday press release. “Despite taking all known health precautions, continued operations in certain locations has caused challenges for our employees, their families and our suppliers.”

The company will wind down its production lines through the rest of the week and plans to cease work by the end of the day, March 23rd. The shelter in place order does allow for basic operations like security, payroll processing to continue so workers sent home will retain their employee benefits. Tesla is also suspending operations at its factory in New York, though the company will keep its Nevada plant and Supercharging network online for now.

Tesla is also working on a “touchess delivery” program so that customers might still be able to take possession of their already completed vehicles without breaking social distancing rules. “Due to the unique over-the-air connectivity of our vehicles, customers are able to unlock their new cars at a delivery parking lot via the Tesla App, sign any remaining relevant paperwork that has been placed in their car, and return that paperwork to an on-site drop-off location prior to leaving,” the company announced.

We’ve reached out to Tesla for commend and will update this post once we hear back.

This back-and-forth has been going on for days. At one point, a county spokesperson said Tesla was an essential business, and therefore exempt from the shelter in place order. This morning, the sheriff’s office changed its tune and said Tesla was non-essential, but that it could maintain minimum basic operations, like providing security and processing payroll and employee benefits.

In a letter, obtained by TechCrunch, Tesla said, “We still do not have final word from the city, county, state and federal government on the status of our operations. We have had conflicting guidance from different levels of government.”

Because of that, Tesla is asking employees it deems essential to come to work. Other employees may be temporarily relocated to support an essential function or need to be on call. In the letter, Tesla says employees who are not feeling well should stay at home and use paid time off (PTO). They can borrow up to 80 hours if they exhaust their PTO balance.

Earlier this week, Elon Musk told employees not to come to work if they feel “the slightest bit ill or even uncomfortable.” He added that it’s “totally ok if you want to stay home for any reason.” Though, employees will have to use their own PTO if they do stay home, which could be a deterrent.

Engadget has reached out to Tesla for comment.

The good news continued on Wednesday when the company released its Q4 2019 earnings and 2020 financial forecast. Thanks to a quick turnaround in building its Shanghai Gigafactory, which was completed in just 10 months, Tesla can now focus on ramping up production of its new crossover SUV, the Model Y, at its existing production plant in Fremont, California. The Ys, which were expected to begin shipping in Fall of 2020 are now slated for delivery by the end of Q1 instead. The company also announced that it is boosting the range of its $51,000 Model Y AWD variant from 280 miles to 315. Tesla did not note whether the $47,000 long-range version, the AWD or the $60,000 performance version are being built first.

Tesla plans to have a 500,000-unit production capacity of Model 3s and Model Ys at the Fremont plant by year’s end. That makes sense since the 3 and Y share more than 75 percent of their components.

Additionally, the company announced that its solar power business is booming. Tesla 54 MW of solar capacity in Q4, 26 percent more than in the prior quarter. Over the course of 2019, the company rolled out 1.65 GWh of energy storage, more than the previous four years put together.