Elon Musk was reportedly snubbed and offended by Commander in Chief President Biden’s praise of rival Tesla for electrifying “the entire auto industry.”
Biden praised General Motors CEO Mary Barra in November 2021 for leading electric vehicle (EV) innovation, but Tesla owns roughly two-thirds of the EVs on the road. The Washington Post.
“You’ve electrified the entire auto industry. I’m serious. You led the way, and that’s important,” Biden said of Barra, calling Detroit the world’s leader in electric vehicles.
Biden’s comments reportedly sparked outrage among Tesla’s top brass, particularly Musk, mainly because Tesla had delivered more than 115,000 EVs in the US at the time, compared with General Motors’ 26.
But as soon as the administration began to ramp up plans to promote electric vehicles across the U.S., tensions began to rise over Musk, who had previously said publicly that he voted for Biden in the 2020 election.
Tesla executives had contacted the White House multiple times after Biden was elected to discuss future plans for EVs in the U.S., hoping to bring the two sides together on the plan.
Musk and his team have consistently been given the cold shoulder, even though Tesla accounted for roughly two-thirds of the electric vehicles on the roads across the U.S. when Biden took office.
The president has begun pushing a new infrastructure bill that aims to ensure that electric and other zero-emission vehicles account for half of all new cars and trucks sold in the United States by 2030.
Biden began planning several EV events early in his administration.
Musk began to feel like he was being left out of the planning process in August 2021 when the president hosted an event with the three biggest automakers: General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler parent company Stellantis.
Musk and Tesla were excluded from the event.
Tesla and Musk were reportedly left off the invitation list for these events because Tesla is the only major US automaker that does not have a unionized factory workforce.
Biden administration officials did not want to anger the United Auto Workers union, which had been pressuring the White House to distance itself from Musk, people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.
According to the Washington, D.C. newspaper, Musk and his representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
