Biden touted Tesla rivals, and Musk was dissatisfied

Text/Alan Ohnsman

Image source: Visual China

Hours before Tesla unveiled its record profits and sales for 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden met with the company's biggest rival at the White House to applaud their efforts — notably, tesla CEO Elon Musk was absent. The tech billionaire then launched an attack on Biden on Twitter.

The CEOs of General Motors, Ford and engine maker Cummins have all been steeped in the president's praises as they work to curb carbon pollution, boost U.S. manufacturing and support Biden's deadlocked "rebuild a better future" legislation. Soon after, as ceo of the world's largest electric car maker and the richest man on the planet, Musk took part in a conference call touting his company's financial gains and answering questions from analysts, with no mention of the White House snubbing him.

In fact, Musk said nothing about the White House forum on the earnings call, and Biden did not mention Musk at the reception. (The billionaire was excluded from the August 2021 White House meeting on GM, Ford and Stallantis electric vehicles, prompting Musk to tweet, "It seems strange that Tesla was not invited.") ”)

But after Biden posted a tweet related to GM's Mary Barra on Thursday, he vented on the president. "Starts with T, ends with A, and ESL in the middle," Musk wrote, before writing some offensive remarks.

He tweeted: "Biden is a damp humanoid (socks) puppet. "Biden has made a fool of the American public."

It may be an understatement to say that the relationship between the two is cold, and the eclipsed events that took place on Wednesday did not suggest anything about the relationship thawing.

In 2021, Tesla produced nearly 1 million electric vehicles and crossovers at its factories in California and China, a record. In the coming weeks, the company will also begin production at a large new electric vehicle plant in Austin, Texas. Even so, Biden has not visited any of Tesla's factories in the United States and has not met publicly with Musk.

It's likely to be more than just the result of Musk's criticism of the Rebuild a Better Future bill, which he said at a meeting last December that Congress shouldn't pass and tweeted that there was "a lot of accounting fraud" in the bill. The tech billionaire is also opposing the WAW's efforts to organize Tesla's factory in Fremont, California, which is a problem for the pro-labor Biden administration.

Considering that the obama administration's support during Biden's presidency was instrumental in Tesla's early success, the apparent mutual contempt between Musk and Biden is a strange development. Tesla received a $465 million low-interest loan from Obama's Department of Energy, a project designed to help green energy companies renovate the Fremont factory, which was acquired from Toyota in 2010 and is decades old. Without those funds, and the tax breaks the federal government offers to consumers who buy Teslas, Tesla might not have survived the tough old days.

On Wednesday, Tesla reported a net profit of $2.32 billion for the fourth quarter of 2021, up eight times year-over-year and with revenue of $17.7 billion. The company's full-year net profit of $5.5 billion and revenue of $53.8 billion were both record. Musk said on the performance conference call: "2021 is a breakthrough year for both Tesla and electric vehicles. "While we and everyone else are struggling to meet the supply chain challenges throughout the year, we managed to grow sales by almost 90 percent."

While Musk touted Tesla's success, Biden praised the merits of General Motors CEO Barra, Ford CEO Jim Farley and Cummins CEO Tim Linebarger.

Biden said: "Believe it or not, industry in the Midwest is recovering. "It's coming back and doing some of the most complex manufacturing in the world." He praised the companies for employing union workers. At the same time, Tesla is expanding its efforts to use robots.

The president went on to welcome GM's announcement on Jan. 25 that it plans to invest an additional $7 billion to support its electric vehicle production in Michigan, and Ford's pledge last year to invest $11 billion in the production of the F-150 Lightning electric pickup and other models. He also has a lot of love for these companies because they will create thousands of jobs.

On Wednesday, GM CEO Barra said she fully supported incentives for consumers. "It really stimulated the market," she said.

With the help of these incentives, Musk created Tesla, and now he opposes them.

Tesla has the ability to be Biden's rival, at least for now. Just look at the quarterly results. But when regulatory issues — such as the U.S. Department of Transportation's review of the company's Autopilot driver assistance features — become more serious responsibilities, Musk may want to be invited to a White House party.

Translated by Stephen