*By Jeffrey Marcus*
Tesla's chairman and CEO Elon Musk escaped an attempt by some shareholders Tuesday to strip him of one of his jobs running the electric car company he founded 15 years ago. Musk will remain as chairman after he fended off an effort by an investor group to remove him and oust three board members loyal to him, including Musk's brother Kimbal.
The vote failed by a "super majority," the company said, which is not surprising. Any vote would take two-thirds to pass, and Musk himself reportedly owns one-fifth of the company's shares.
Other developments from the shareholders meeting include:
* Tesla announced plans to build a factory in China, a move that would allow the car company to avoid import tariffs there. The Chinese government recently announced it would allow electric car makers to own factories in China without a domestic partner. Tesla's head of global sales, Robin Ren, said the factory would be in Shanghai, and Musk said the factory would assemble cars and build batteries in the same place, [CNBC reported](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/05/tesla-talks-shanghai-factory-at-shareholder-meeting.html).
* With the help of a new third assembly line at the company's California factory, Musk said Tesla will likely be able to produce 5,000 Model 3 vehicles a week by the end of June. The plant is already producing an average of 3,500 week, he said, and the grueling months-long effort to ramp up production has been worth it. "It's been the most excruciating, hellish months I've maybe ever had, but I think we're getting there," Musk said [according to The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/business/tesla-once-a-wall-street-darling-faces-investor-challenge.html).
* Despite fatal crashes involving Tesla's Autopilot feature, the company is pressing ahead, even offering free trials for customers who are not certain they want to spend another $5,000 on a non-existent chauffeur, [Wired magazine](https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-tesla-shareholders-meeting/) reported.
* New models are on deck, including the all-wheel drive Model 3, expected to begin limited production later this year; the Model Y, which will go into production in 2020; and the semi truck and the new roadster expected around the same time.
* Musk did not lash out the way he did during Tesla's quarterly earnings call last month, when he antagonized analysts and institutional investors. But it was still an emotional shareholders meeting for Musk, who had his authority challenged and his vision questioned. He got a little choked up, [Reuters reported](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-shareholders/teslas-musk-says-quite-likely-will-meet-model-3-goal-directors-re-elected-idUSKCN1J12YT). "At Tesla we build our cars with love," Musk said. "At a lot of other companies, they're built by marketing or the finance department and there's no soul. We're not perfect, but we pour our heart and soul into it and we really care."
Watch [video](https://www.tesla.com/shareholdermeeting) of the full shareholders meeting on Tesla's website. For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/elon-musk-lives-to-fight-another-day-as-chairman-of-tesla).
Pfizer and BioNTech are working to develop an mRNA-based shingles vaccine following the success of the COVID-19 shot. This latest collaboration will mark the third time the pharmaceutical companies have worked together on a vaccine.
On Monday, President Biden announced his new plan to take on inflation by taking down the big meat monopolies - turning to the federal government's antitrust authorities to investigate the major meatpackers that control a significant share of the market. The White House plans to devote one billion dollars to aiding independent meat and poultry producers in an effort to undercut the few powerful meat producers that have control of the sector. Austin Frerick, deputy director of Thurman Arnold Project at Yale, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Flight cancellations remain high nearly two weeks after the Christmas holiday, with more than 1,400 counted on Tuesday. Carriers are facing a number of factors including staff shortages linked to COVID-19 spread as well as inclement weather.
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For the first time in 90 years, General Motors has officially been dethroned as the top car seller in the U.S. after Toyota sold 2.3 million vehicles last year. Paulina Likos, an investing reporter at U.S News & World Report, said that the Japanese auto giant's 2021 success is linked to its large stockpile of semiconductor chips that allowed it to continue producing vehicles while others lagged behind. Likos noted that both GM and Toyota noted that this is unlikely to be a long-term trend and pointed to both automakers' push to become EV leaders. "I think what's great in this EV market is that there are so many different competitors, and certainly both GM and Toyota are trying to be leaders in this space," she said.
As the pandemic drags on, so does the widespread great resignation. In November alone, 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs, marking a new record high, and showing a 9 percent jump from the month prior. On the flip side, the number of people filing tax paperwork to start new businesses is surging, with over 430,000 new businesses launching in November. Rhett Buttle, the founder of Public Private Strategies and national business advisor to the Biden for President campaign, joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is ramping up a civil investigation into The Trump Organization. The AG's office has subpoenaed Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. They have refused to comply with the subpoenas. Bradley Moss, national security attorney, joins Cheddar News to discuss the next steps in this investigation.
LG announced its latest cooking appliances including its ThinQ Recipe service. The app allows people to choose from up to 10,000 recipes and have the ingredients delivered to their doorstep. LG Electronics executive Brandt Varner joins Cheddar News to talk about the products.
