The feud between America's most powerful man, President Joe Biden, and the world's richest man, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, doesn't seem to be going to subside anytime soon.
On Tuesday night local time, Biden delivered his first State of the Union address in office, in which he praised Tesla's competitors, but once again ignored Tesla. This once again ignited the anger in Musk's heart, and he angrily said: No one will read the State of the Union address!
Why are Biden and Musk so "incompatible"?
Biden once again ignored Tesla
Musk: Nobody looks at the State of the Union
On March 1, local time, US President Joe Biden delivered his first State of the Union address during his tenure. In his State of the Union address, Biden boasted that ford and general motors, veteran american traditional car companies, had invested a total of $18 billion to build electric vehicles, while electric vehicle giant Tesla was not mentioned.
Biden gave his first State of the Union address. Image source: Visual China
Some media asked Musk about this, and he responded in an email: "No one will read the State of the Union address. Musk then tweeted directly @ Biden, saying that "Tesla has created more than 50,000 jobs for the United States in the production of electric vehicles, and the investment is more than twice that of GM and Ford combined." ”
Image credit: Elon Musk Social Media
On February 22, local time, Musk accused Biden of ignoring Tesla in an email to the media. "Every time Biden deliberately ignores Tesla and falsely claims to the public that GM leads the electric car industry, the truth is that Tesla produced more than 300,000 electric vehicles last quarter, while GM only produced 26." Musk said in an email.
According to people familiar with the matter, Biden and senior White House officials have said privately that they have no plans to invite Musk to any upcoming executive meetings in the near future. Biden's advisers privately objected to inviting Musk to future industry events because they feared the outspoken executive would say something that would embarrass the president or the administration. But musk sought to reassure White House officials in the email that if he was invited to speak at a White House event, he would not do embarrassing things or say embarrassing things.
So far, Biden has not only never invited Musk to a White House event, nor has he ever visited any of Tesla's production facilities in the United States, or met publicly with Musk, while Executives from Ford and General Motors have been invited more than once.
In January, Biden met with business leaders, including GM CEO Mary Barra and Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley, to discuss its Build Back Better initiative. However, the initiative later reached an impasse in Congress. Musk later called Biden a "humanoid wet sock puppet" on Twitter, accusing him of being "union-controlled."
According to multiple people familiar with the matter, the president and his team were privately outraged by Musk's criticism.
Biden has also affirmed Tesla
According to Reuters, US President Biden finally affirmed Tesla for the first time in a speech on February 8.
"From iconic companies like General Motors and Ford Motor to build new EV production operations, to Tesla, the nation's largest electric car maker, to startups like Rivian, we see an opportunity for the global manufacturing center of gravity to return to the U.S. decades later," Biden said. ”
This time Biden finally publicly acknowledged Tesla's leadership position in the US electric vehicle market, which is not unrelated to Tesla's strong performance in global electric vehicles in the past year, and the Biden administration has obviously seen the return opportunity for the US manufacturing industry behind Tesla's strong development.
On February 7, Tesla, the world's largest electric car manufacturer, filed its 10-K annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The documents show that in 2021, the gross profit margin of Tesla's automotive business reached 29.3%, an increase of 3.7 percentage points compared with 2020. Among them, the gross profit margin of bicycles reached 30.6%.
tesla. Image source: Photo.com
"Despite rising costs for raw materials, commodities, logistics, etc., the average unit cost of Model 3 and Model Y has decreased significantly due to localized sourcing and manufacturing in China. In addition, Model Y gross margin benefited from model 3 shared manufacturing and an increase in improved production processes." Tesla said.
It is worth mentioning that the gross profit margin of 29.3% has made Tesla the world's most profitable car brand. Relevant statistics show that the gross profit margin of most car companies in the world is below 20%. Toyota is known as the most profitable car brand, and its automotive business gross margin in the first quarter of 2021 was 19.2%; Daimler, BMW and Mercedes-Benz in the luxury car camp were also far surpassed by Tesla in terms of gross profit margin.
In 2021, GM CEO Barra has said that "the gross profit margin growth momentum of electric vehicles will continue into 2030." Tesla's rising gross margin also confirms Barra's view.
Overall, in 2021, Tesla achieved total revenue of $53.82 billion, an increase of 71% over the previous year; net profit attributable to common shareholders of $5.52 billion, an increase of $4.80 billion over the previous year, an increase of 667% year-on-year. This is also the second consecutive year that it has achieved profitability.
Why are the two so "not dealing with each other"?
Trade unions are the main contradiction
Tesla's strong performance in the field of electric vehicles is obvious to all, but why is the Biden administration slow to give Tesla recognition? In fact, the contradiction between the two sides mainly lies in the trade union.
The union here refers to the National Automobile Workers' Federation (UAW). How strong is UAW? UAW currently has more than 400,000 active members, 580,000 retired members, and more than 600 local unions in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada.
Influenced by tradition, UAW is powerful in the "Rust Zone" in the United States, because UAW rose up when there was no "rust" in these areas, and there was a "rust culture". Tesla's temperament is completely different from UAW.
The Biden administration has previously said it hopes to provide an additional $4,500 (about 28,000 yuan) tax breaks per vehicle for union-produced, U.S.-made electric vehicles.
Tesla didn't get a penny of that — Tesla workers didn't participate in U.S. unions, and traditional car companies like Toyota were mostly automakers affiliated with Detroit's Auto Workers' Union.
So Musk himself has actually been holding back a breath for the Biden administration. He once said in an internal Panel discussion at Tesla: "The Biden administration is not friendly, they seem to be controlled by unions." ”
Elon Musk. Image source: Visual China
Perhaps because of the above grievances, Musk often contradicts Biden in public affairs.
For example, Musk has also been very critical of the Biden administration's epidemic prevention policy, and the most recent thing is that Musk has publicly supported Canadian truck drivers who oppose compulsory vaccination.
Editor| Wang Yuelong, Yi Qijiang, Du Hengfeng
Proofreading | He Xiaotao
Daily Economic News Comprehensive Financial Associated Press, Beijing News Commentary, Economic Observer, etc
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