Photo: YouTube / The White House
Politics is a minefield – one where even carmakers have to tread with due caution. But politics be damned because it should not get in the way of acknowledging the obvious: Tesla is the leading EV manufacturer in the United States.
Since last August, the current Presidential administration has been playing a cat-and-mouse game with Tesla, where President Joe Biden constantly kept refusing to invite Tesla to any industry meeting and, at the same time, to ignore its existence in public speeches. The ridiculousness of the situation became apparent at the end of last month, which is also when CEO Elon Musk openly challenged Biden – on Twitter, of course – to say his company’s name.
The “feud” boiled down to politics, specifically the fact that Tesla is not unionized and that Musk opposed Biden’s Build Back Better plan. But the administration’s way of retaliating, with Biden praising General Motors and Ford as leaders on the EV market when Tesla outnumbers them in production numbers and sales, was almost childish.
The Tesla community stepped up to right the wrong shortly after Musk challenged Biden to say the Tesla name. An online petition to the White House quickly went viral, gathering more than 58,000 signatures, and fans even took out an ad in Times Square. The results did not fail to appear: in his latest press conference on the U.S. auto industry, President Biden has finally acknowledged Tesla as the leading EV maker in the country.
“Since 2021, companies have announced investments totaling more than $200 billion in domestic manufacturing here in America, from iconic companies like GM and Ford building out new electric vehicle production; to Tesla, our nation’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer; to innovative younger companies like Rivian, building electric trucks, or Proterra, building electric buses, which I saw at a virtual tour last year when I met with the CEO virtually,” the President said.
Call this the power of the people because it wouldn’t have happened without pressure on the White House from the Tesla community, something that Musk himself acknowledges. Speaking of, Elon Musk is pleased. It’s not a victory but the admission of a fact.
The “feud” boiled down to politics, specifically the fact that Tesla is not unionized and that Musk opposed Biden’s Build Back Better plan. But the administration’s way of retaliating, with Biden praising General Motors and Ford as leaders on the EV market when Tesla outnumbers them in production numbers and sales, was almost childish.
The Tesla community stepped up to right the wrong shortly after Musk challenged Biden to say the Tesla name. An online petition to the White House quickly went viral, gathering more than 58,000 signatures, and fans even took out an ad in Times Square. The results did not fail to appear: in his latest press conference on the U.S. auto industry, President Biden has finally acknowledged Tesla as the leading EV maker in the country.
“Since 2021, companies have announced investments totaling more than $200 billion in domestic manufacturing here in America, from iconic companies like GM and Ford building out new electric vehicle production; to Tesla, our nation’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer; to innovative younger companies like Rivian, building electric trucks, or Proterra, building electric buses, which I saw at a virtual tour last year when I met with the CEO virtually,” the President said.
Call this the power of the people because it wouldn’t have happened without pressure on the White House from the Tesla community, something that Musk himself acknowledges. Speaking of, Elon Musk is pleased. It’s not a victory but the admission of a fact.
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— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 8, 2022
Thanks, this made a difference!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 8, 2022
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