Tesla: Imported from California?

Tesla is based in California, and California is part of the U.S., sources tell Automotive News.

But that didn’t stop a security guard at a General Motors plant in Missouri from believing a California-made Tesla Model 3 was imported from overseas.

The guard cited the Model 3 as “foreign in domestic lot,” The Drive reported last week.

Tesla’s work force is nonunion, unlike employees of GM and the other Detroit automakers, but Tesla’s Fremont, Calif., factory is nowhere near foreign soil, of course. Auto plants created domestic-only lots mainly to keep out vehicles made by nonunion workers, though that issue has become complicated now that so many vehicles sold by GM, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis come from Mexico and other countries.

A GM spokesperson said the ticket, which carries no fine or other penalty, was a mistake.

“Wentzville, like many of our manufacturing sites, has a parking policy and designated parking locations for GM vehicles, non-GM domestic vehicles and foreign nameplates,” the spokesperson told The Drive in an email. “Plant security inadvertently thought the Tesla was a foreign car and wrote a ticket accordingly.”

Ironically, the ticket was written the same day that Cars.com ranked the Model 3 atop this year’s American-Made Index, based on how much of a vehicle is built in the U.S. with U.S.-made parts.