Tesla's Big F***ing Field

[Laramie]

I agree. If we're trying to get Tesla here, we should go all out in our efforts. I'm encouraged that we're still getting face time and publicity... if it was a lock for Austin I wouldn't think we'd still be around.

I don't think they have decided on Austin.  Think about what Texas has to offer and the fact that Austin is now becoming a victim of its own aggressive growth (traffic).  

IMO Telsa wants Tulsa to throw in a few more incentives and perks.  Telsa isn't going to get anymore perks and incentives from Austin...  ...they are trying  to get more from Tulsa, hoping the State of Oklahoma will throw in the kitchen sink.

That explains Governor Stitt's recent meeting with Elon Musk.

[Rattle Trap]

Interesting information in this article: https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/gov-kevin-stitt-and-local-officials-make-pitch-for-tulsa-during-meeting-with-elon-musk/article_3f72c855-4794-52d7-8439-6cc4870fd7c7.amp.html?__twitter_impression=true

I figured the concern with Tulsa, as it typically is, is about workforce and the lack of thousands of available skilled employees. Elon apparently has that concern when it comes to engineers.

This article also kind of reads like Tulsa may not be the frontrunner or perhaps Elon just isn't focused on site selection right now:

Kouplen said he asked Musk to come to Tulsa before making a decision and Musk said he would consider it.

[SXSW]

I thought this was interesting considering all the hand-wringing about it by some Tulsans

He said Musk asked about the Golden Driller, and a recent attention-grabbing  effort in which Musk's likeness was painted on the giant figure's face and the Tesla symbol onto its belt buckle.

Musk wanted to know if it was real or photo shopped, Kouplen said.

"He thought that was pretty cool," Kouplen said.

Regarding the lack of skilled engineers, that has never hurt AA or the other aerospace companies that have thousands of employees in Tulsa.  While we don't have a major state university in the city TU has a well-known engineering school and we are 1.5 hours from OSU and 2 hours from both OU and UofArkansas combined that's over 65k students.

[SXSW]

Well I guess the Navistar/IC Bus plant is off the table

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/city-of-tulsa-ic-bus-announce-new-20-year-agreement-for-bus-manufacturing-plant-301067069.html

[rebound]

I thought this was interesting considering all the hand-wringing about it by some Tulsans

Regarding the lack of skilled engineers, that has never hurt AA or the other aerospace companies that have thousands of employees in Tulsa.  While we don't have a major state university in the city TU has a well-known engineering school and we are 1.5 hours from OSU and 2 hours from both OU and UofArkansas combined that's over 65k students.

Agreed. Tulsa and the surrounding area(s) would be more than able to supply the needs for engineers and skilled technical workers. But, so would Austin.  Between UT and TAMU (only two hours away), there are over 100K students.

I just did quick LinkedIn search (which won't be exact, but close enough). Most of the Tesla employees come from where you would expect.  CA schools and a number of the more elite national universities (MIT, Purdue, GA Tech, etc...) make up the bulk of the universities. But also, interestingly, there are 115 people from TAMU.  That is more than USC, and close to MIT.   It's also surprising because there are only 49 from UT Austin.  Comparatively, there are 14 from OSU, 15 from OU, 8 from UofA.  Not sure what the connection of TAMU to Tesla is, but that is high number compared to other regional schools.

[SXSW]

Agreed. Tulsa and the surrounding area(s) would be more than able to supply the needs for engineers and skilled technical workers. But, so would Austin.  Between UT and TAMU (only two hours away), there are over 100K students.

I just did quick LinkedIn search (which won't be exact, but close enough). Most of the Tesla employees come from where you would expect.  CA schools and a number of the more elite national universities (MIT, Purdue, GA Tech, etc...) make up the bulk of the universities. But also, interestingly, there are 115 people from TAMU.  That is more than USC, and close to MIT.   It's also surprising because there are only 49 from UT Austin.  Comparatively, there are 14 from OSU, 15 from OU, 8 from UofA.  Not sure what the connection of TAMU to Tesla is, but that is high number compared to other regional schools.

Texas A&M has a very good (and large) mechanical engineering program.  It's slightly more of a stretch but both KU and KSU have strong engineering programs; KU is 4 hours and KSU is 4.5 hours away.  Both have sizable alumni bases in Tulsa.

If we're not selected maybe this gets the state to get serious about expanding OU-Tulsa and OSU-Tulsa because this is a major deficiency for the Tulsa area.

[heironymouspasparagus]

I thought this was interesting considering all the hand-wringing about it by some Tulsans

Regarding the lack of skilled engineers, that has never hurt AA or the other aerospace companies that have thousands of employees in Tulsa.  While we don't have a major state university in the city TU has a well-known engineering school and we are 1.5 hours from OSU and 2 hours from both OU and UofArkansas combined that's over 65k students.

Just some basic background info;

In 2018, OSU had 831 graduates in the school of Engineering, Architecture and Technology (260 Mechanical Engineers).   Seems like I remember there are 'about' 25,000 full time at Stillwater and another 10,000 spread around the other campus', many of them part time.  (35,000 is OSU stated number.)  That is a pretty small number of STEM, but on a par with national population of STEM people working nationwide. 

Sadly, Oklahoma doesn't have the capacity to hire anywhere near 800 per year.  We lose a lot outside of OK.  Rebound gave some numbers about Tesla employee schools.  I would like to know current number of STEMs they employ.  Guy I worked with got interview with them in CA a few years ago (OSU grad) and at the time, I think he said they had 3 or 4 thousand technology types.

OSU has a great Engineering school!  We don't get all the recognition - or the support - we deserve for it, both in state and nationwide.

Bottom line, Tesla would still be trying to import people to work there.   And it would be an uphill battle.

[SXSW]

Honest question, how many people actually working in the plant have engineering degrees?  Aren't most assembly line workers that you could recruit from Tulsa Tech or Tulsa Welding School similar to many of the employees working at the AA maintenance base?  I understand electric cars are somewhat different but all 10k+ workers won't need college degrees let alone mechanical engineering degrees.

[swake]

Honest question, how many people actually working in the plant have engineering degrees?  Aren't most assembly line workers that you could recruit from Tulsa Tech or Tulsa Welding School similar to many of the employees working at the AA maintenance base?  I understand electric cars are somewhat different but all 10k+ workers won't need college degrees let alone mechanical engineering degrees.

They will need much less training than the people at AA. It's more like the employees at the bus factory.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Honest question, how many people actually working in the plant have engineering degrees?  Aren't most assembly line workers that you could recruit from Tulsa Tech or Tulsa Welding School similar to many of the employees working at the AA maintenance base?  I understand electric cars are somewhat different but all 10k+ workers won't need college degrees let alone mechanical engineering degrees.

That's the question I have about the CA Tesla plant. Should be somewhat similar.  Rebound gave some numbers - couple hundred engineering types from the schools he mentioned.  Friend said there were several thousand when he went there...whatever that is.  Have not heard any numbers since.

If it is only a thousand needed here, that could still be a problem. 

[Oil Capital]

Texas A&M has a very good (and large) mechanical engineering program.  It's slightly more of a stretch but both KU and KSU have strong engineering programs; KU is 4 hours and KSU is 4.5 hours away.  Both have sizable alumni bases in Tulsa.

If we're not selected maybe this gets the state to get serious about expanding OU-Tulsa and OSU-Tulsa because this is a major deficiency for the Tulsa area.

Not one of the engineering programs mentioned in this thread to feed a Tulsa Tesla plant is ranked  in the top 100 by US News - Not the University of Tulsa, not OSU, not OU, not Arkansas, nor KU or KSU.

There are seven top 100 engineering programs within comparable distances from Hutto,Texas

[Rattle Trap]

I saw a post on Reddit yesterday about a guy whose relative works for a company that has been asked to bid on a "Tesla building" in Tulsa. Hasn't been given any further info on it yet. Could be a showroom, service center, etc. Timing doesn't seem right for it to be the factory. Still interesting though

[SXSW]

Not one of the engineering programs mentioned in this thread to feed a Tulsa Tesla plant is ranked  in the top 100 by US News.

There are seven top 100 engineering programs within comparable distances from Hutto,Texas

Again most of these assembly line workers don't need college degrees.  I would put our skilled workforce in oil & gas components and aerospace ahead of anything Austin/Hutto offers.  Do all Tesla engineers need to be from Top 100 engineering schools?  Many would relocate from CA anyway, and I'm sure would be happy to move to an affordable state.  The rest would probably be a mix of the regional schools and Texas/Colorado.

[Rattle Trap]

Not sure where this website came from, but worth sharing around. https://www.tulsafortesla.com/

[LandArchPoke]

Again most of these assembly line workers don't need college degrees.  I would put our skilled workforce in oil & gas components and aerospace ahead of anything Austin/Hutto offers.  Do all Tesla engineers need to be from Top 100 engineering schools?  Many would relocate from CA anyway, and I'm sure would be happy to move to an affordable state.  The rest would probably be a mix of the regional schools and Texas/Colorado.

You are right, the vast majority of these jobs will only require a high school/GED education and they are even willing to hire people without those if they have experience in similar type of jobs. The amount of the highly skilled workers they will need to recruit is a much smaller piece of the pie. Most of assembly line jobs pay $40k/year starting out full-time. That's where we have a strong case to make against even Austin, $40k in Tulsa goes a lot further to having a nicer life than in Austin.

Doubling the size of OU/OSU/TU likely wouldn't make much of a dent for a economic development project of this size. College pipelines are critical to smaller and more regional sized firms to grow and are important to the long term viability of large companies. It will be important to add/beef up programs to fill roles for Tesla long term if they do locate here to fill job openings for natural turnover/growth, which is slower and more stable than an initial scale up. This is a much smaller concern than the initial scale up phase, that's where a lot of the risk plays out.

Really it all boils down to do companies think they can recruit to Tulsa. For any major expansion or relocation of over a thousand employees, outside of a small handful of metros like DC, NYC, San Fran, etc. they are going to be a net importer of people to scale up to a level of employment quickly (within a year or two). This is why places like Austin, Nashville, Denver, Salt Lake City, Portland (medium sized metros) have been so successful is because they invested heavily on quality of life programs and built the blocks of a city people wanted to relocate, which in return helped them be a net importer of graduates (not just from local universities) and gave companies the confidence they can fill job positions in those markets and companies followed. 

Frankly, that's why the GKFF remote worker program is such a huge marketing piece that some don't even realize. We can now go to a company and say we had 20,000 people apply to move to Tulsa last year, that helps reduce some of that fear of hiring/talent pipelines of being able to bring in a thousand or more employees with a large portion of those probably being from surrounding markets like Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, etc. Places like Dallas/Houston have ate Oklahoma's lunch in this regard marketing to companies looking to expand. It's really astonishing how many people I talk to in Dallas, Houston and Austin that moved from Oklahoma. They didn't build those markets off UT and A&M grads only - they built it off OSU, OU, LSU, U of A, KU, KSU and people of those states through showing that companies had the ability to pull in people from a regional footprint.