Its priority for when the 4680 cells are finally ready is very likely the Cybertruck. With a long waiting list for it, the company has to focus on delivering these vehicles. Apart from that, Tesla also said it has a pilot plant for the 4680 batteries close to its Fremont factory, on Kato Road. It may be enough to count as the first attempt to produce these batteries, even if they are not ready yet.
Instead of waiting for a negative answer, Tesla preferred to withdraw its request for subsidies. Elon Musk was quick to say that “it has always been Tesla’s view that all subsidies should be eliminated, but that must include the massive subsidies for oil & gas.” Sour grapes, you know? Which does not match with accepting subsidies for multiple other things.
Thanks to them, Tesla chose Grünheide for its factory. It has done the same in Texas because of incentives. Tesla took carbon credits for years and still does: it was only profitable in multiple quarters due to them. Even Fremont was bought with California’s help and tax incentives.
In other tweets, Musk seems to argue that subsidies are harmful but that everybody else takes them, so... Tesla would be just making the game more even by doing the same. That does not seem precisely coherent.
Like La Fontaine’s fox, Tesla and Elon Musk could not reach the subsidies for the battery plant, so they decided to pretend they did not want them. Some people will defend Musk’s version of the story with all their hearts. Too bad it is not true: if it were, Tesla would not have applied for them in the first place.
It has always been Tesla’s view that all subsidies should be eliminated, but that must include the massive subsidies for oil & gas.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 26, 2021
For some reason, governments don’t want to do that …
Our giant auto co competitors have much greater access to incentives than Tesla, which means Tesla has prospered in spite of govt subsidies, not because of them. Tesla mkt cap has *risen* over time as EV incentives declined. How strange …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2018
That article was pushed as propaganda to counter IMF study showing fossil fuel subsidies to be $5 trillion/year. Even if $4.9B was true, combined market cap of Tesla & SpaceX is $80B. Where did the other $75B come from? Ass ???? …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2018
Combined Tesla+SpaceX market cap is now over $1.2T, which means “$4.9B” is less than 0.4% of combined company value
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 26, 2021
Fossil fuels subsidized at $10 million a minute, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week https://t.co/zAZOohjb4E
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2018