Beam Global will stop building its products in California. The Nasdaq-listed company (BEEM) said on June 25, 2026, that it will move its California manufacturing and production operations to Yuma, Arizona, while keeping its corporate headquarters in San Diego.
The Yuma campus is two adjacent industrial buildings with about 55,000 square feet of office and manufacturing space. Beam will take the first on July 15, 2026, and the second on January 1, 2027, under a lease that runs through July 31, 2031. The lease lets the company buy the property at a favorable fixed price at any point during its term. Production is meant to continue without interruption during the move.
The numbers
Beam expects rent savings of about $400,000 in 2026 and $2.7 million across the five-year lease, measured against what it pays in San Diego now. It also expects Arizona to be cheaper for labor, benefits, insurance, utilities, regulatory and other operating costs, and says incentive programs from the city of Yuma and the state could add more.
The site sits in a manufacturing zone with road and rail access, and management expects lower shipping costs. Employees get lower state income taxes and a lower cost of living, housing especially. Yuma Marine Corps Air Station is close by, which the company says helps it keep hiring veterans, and local data points to a better supply of manufacturing workers than the San Diego area offers.
Beam’s facilities in Chicago, in Belgrade and Kraljevo, Serbia, and in Abu Dhabi are not affected.
What the company says
Chief executive Desmond Wheatley called the relocation “one of the most impactful steps we can take to improve our gross margins and move more quickly toward becoming cash flow positive.” The option to buy, he said, would let Beam operate without rent or lease liabilities, as it does at Beam Europe. “We are de-risking our business and dramatically reducing our costs,” he said. The products will still be designed and manufactured in the United States.
The company also sees a chance to bring more work in-house. Several procedures are outsourced in California because of what Beam calls an expensive and arduous permitting and compliance environment. Doing them in Arizona, it says, would cut costs, risk and complexity and lift gross margins.
Cindy Blot, assistant director of community development for the City of Yuma, called the move “a significant investment in our community.” The Greater Yuma Economic Development Corporation reports that the region has more than 18,000 industrial production jobs and an industrial turnover rate of about 3%. It also says 52 million consumers are within a one-day truck haul and more than 100 million within two days.
Sources
- Beam Global Selects Yuma for U.S. Manufacturing Operations – Greater Yuma Economic Development Corp
- Beam Global Relocates Manufacturing Operations to Yuma, AZ
