Tesla back in San Jose?

The unpredictable Tesla saga continues unabated.

The Merc and the Chronicle are reporting that Tesla will build the power-trains for its Model S sedan in the Bay Area. As the latter said:

"I can say, definitively, the power-train engineering will remain in the Bay Area," Musk said. "Silicon Valley has the best electrical engineers in the world, and I'm a big believer in keeping some of the production here in the Bay Area."

In September, Tesla announced plans to build a Model S factory in San Jose, and the next month postponed plans to make the Model S.

In January of 2009, it cancelled plans for the San Jose factory, while in March it said it planned to build its factory in a brownfield site in Los Angeles. Earlier this week, it unveiled the Model S for customers in its Menlo Park showroom.

It’s unclear what the next step in the saga will be — let alone the final outcome — but it seems very unlikely that Tesla will be driving a straight line from here to there.