President Biden Ignored Tesla’s $10 Billion Investment In EVs During SOTU
President Biden, in highlighting the EV transition and auto manufacturing in the US during his 2022 State of the Union address, once again ignored Tesla’s contributions, which include a $10 billion investment in Texas toward electric vehicles. Compared to what’s happening in Ukraine, that can be seen as not important and small. However, historians a few hundred years from now will probably speculate as to why the president continued to ignore the leader of the EV industry, an American company that has poured billions of dollars into accelerating the transition to electric vehicles.
I want to preface this with the fact that I don’t hate Biden. I voted for him. In my opinion, Trump would have been a worse president, especially since he was alienating our NATO allies during his term in office. To be fair to Trump, at least 10 years ago he seemed coherent. He was even a Democrat at one time. I really think he got brainwashed, but that’s a topic for another day.
Why is @JoeBiden talking about Ford and GM as if @elonmusk and @Tesla aren't the actual ones leading the EV revolution? Kinda sus
— Trey (@TradesTrey) March 2, 2022
In an email to CNBC, Elon Musk pointed out that Biden has continually ignored Tesla’s contribution despite Tesla having created over 50,000 US jobs building EVs and the fact that it is investing far more than General Motors and Ford combined.
During this week’s SOTU address, President Biden said that Ford’s $11 billion investment in EVs would create 11,000 new US jobs. He also gave GM praise for investing $7 billion into EVs and creating 4,000 new jobs in Michigan. He didn’t mention the 20,000 direct and 100,000 indirect jobs Tesla is creating in Texas alone (it also has factories in California, Nevada, and New York that are expanding), nor the $10 billion investment Tesla is making in Texas.
Giga Texas is a $10B+ investment over time, generating at least 20k direct & 100k indirect jobs
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2021
For those confused about the terminology, direct jobs are jobs that Tesla itself will provide. Indirect jobs will be created through other businesses mostly located around Tesla that have been spurred on by Tesla’s economic growth and impact on the community. Although Tesla isn’t directly hiring those 100,000 jobs, those jobs reflect the effect Tesla is having in Austin, and for a company to have that type of effect, they are making pretty big moves.
Everyone knows that Tesla has led the EV market. Ford, GM, and other legacy automakers are only making EVs so they can survive. In essence, their hearts are not in it as Tesla’s is, and this, in my opinion, is why Tesla is doing so well. Elon’s heart is in the mission.
I think that Biden is truly held hostage by his union campaign donors who represent companies that are negatively impacted by Tesla’s success — companies that don’t want to revolutionize the automotive industry and were doing just fine creating vehicles that contribute via tailpipe emissions to the 4.2 million deaths caused annually by air pollution.
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