BUFFALO, N.Y. — People have questions.
Reporters have them.
Investors have them.
The SEC has them.
Let’s start with journalist questions about the Tesla factory in South Buffalo. For almost a year, 2 On-Your-Side has been asking about getting into the gigantic facility to see Tesla signature solar product, solar roofing tiles, rolling off the assembly line.
Each time the company has assured us that day will come, but not right now. Again, that’s gone on for months and he remind folks some $750,000,000 from New York taxpayers financed the construction of the plant.
But today, we did find someone who has been inside: Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown.
The mayor told us today his visit was about a month and a half ago. What did he see?
Brown said, “I have seen the construction work to build out the plant that has been on-going. It was impressive. It is an incredibly large facility but I have not seen actual production work.”
So, we asked, based on what he saw and has heard whether he thought Tesla’s claims were credible that production has been ramping up.
Mayor Brown’s answer: “I haven’t seen the production line. I am hopeful if they are saying that they are doing that.”
We shared the mayor’s comment with Tesla. As off this writing, 2 On-Your-Side has received no further comment from its spokesperson.
The biggest questions facing Tesla these days may center of founder Elon Musk’s social media habits.
Last week, Musk tweeted out that he was interested in taking Tesla private and that financing was already in place to buy-back all the shares of stock.
CNBC’s auto industry analyst Phil LeBeau explains the potential problem: “If a company is going to raise capital or is thinking about going private, it would make a formal filing to the Security and Exchange Commission. That didn’t happen here. You had Elon Mush putting out this note and immediate you had people saying, ‘Where’s the funding?’ “
LeBeau explains breaking news about stock buy-back funding ahead of actually having proof of the funding can get a company in trouble with federal regulators and unhappy stock-holders.