San Francisco, Feb 23 (IANS): Tesla has announced a new engineering headquarters in California in the US, stating it would take over office space in Palo Alto (a city in California) previously occupied by Hewlett Packard (HP).

The announcement was made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday along with California Governor Gavin Newsom, who called it "another proof point of the renewable energy vibrancy that is California", reports The Verge.

The EV maker also shared the announcement of new engineering HQ on Twitter, saying: "In 2022, we grew to 47k direct employees & $5B of capital investment in California. Today, we're continuing our investment in California with our new Engineering HQ in Palo Alto".

Tesla was founded in 2003 in San Carlos, California, and has spent the majority of its 20-year existence there.

The company abruptly relocated its headquarters to Austin, Texas, in October 2021, in recognition of its new Gigafactory, which was under construction in the state, said the report.

It also has Gigafactories in Nevada (US), Buffalo (US), Berlin (Germany), and Shanghai (China).

Moreover, the report mentioned that Musk previously threatened to pull Tesla's entire operation out of California in 2020 due to his strong opposition to the state's shelter-in-place orders during the height of the covid pandemic.

As a form of protest, Tesla even sued the county in which its California factory is located.

However, the company retained its presence in California and continues to invest in its Fremont factory and still maintains its old headquarters in Palo Alto.

Meanwhile, Tesla has committed to opening up 7,500 of its charging stations to non-Tesla vehicles by the end of 2024, as part of the Biden administration's new initiatives to install 5,00,000 electric vehicle chargers on the US roads by 2030 under its $7.5 billion plan.