California may be solid blue but the Northern San Joaquin Valley is Tesla country.

Tesla is the second largest private sector employer in San Joaquin County behind Amazon.

And while the bulk of those are employees of the Tesla auto assembly plant in Fremont, well over 1,000 as of 2023 were employed between eight different Tesla addresses in Lathrop including the Tesla megapack battery storage assembly plant.

Roughly 15,000 people are employed in the Bay Area and San Joaquin County.

It is why you will not hear members of Congress in the greater region speak ill of Tesla despite Elon Musk being its face and primary owner.

That is not the case for a number of national politicians that are mostly Democrats.

Tesla dealerships and charging stations have been the subject of vandalism, fires, graffiti and such by those objecting to Musk’s high profile role in the Trump administration.

A significant amount of social media postings are urging people to not buy Teslas.

Besides having a high concentration of Tesla owners such as in Mountain House where you can often drive streets and almost see half of the vehicles are Teslas, the car company that President Trump has described as being “the most American car” in terms of parts and assembly offers daily reminders of the company’s local economic impact.

A fleet of buses daily stop in front of the Manteca Walmart to take workers to — and bring them home from — shift work in  the factory in Fremont 55 miles away.

They also stop at Modesto’s Airport where Telsa leases 500 parking spaces for workers who catch the bus.

Those catching the bus drive as far away as Merced to the Modesto Airport underscoring the economic impact Tesla has on the Northern San Joaquin Valley that includes San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Merced counties.

The advantage for Tesla providing the service is that factory workers — who even with fairly good wages can’t often afford to live in the Bay Area — arrive for work rested.

It also eliminates gas costs as well as wear and tear on workers’ vehicles.

Today, Amazon is the No. 1 private sector employer in San Joaquin County with more than 13,000 workers.

There are now 13 Amazon distribution facilities in the Northern San Joaquin Valley with all but two (Turlock and Patterson) located with San Joaquin County.

There are two Amazon facilities in Manteca.

 It represents a $9 billion and counting investment in San Joaquin County area by Amazon.

  To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com