Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants to sell her Tesla Model 3 and buy another electric vehicle produced by unionised workers following a Twitter argument with the company’s CEO, Elon Musk.
The Democratic congresswoman told Bloomberg on Wednesday that she would “love to switch” her electric vehicle for another, with a unionised brand on her mind.
“At the time, it was the only EV that could get me from New York to Washington on like one, or one-and-a-half charges,” she told the news outlet of her 2020 purchase. “I would love to switch.”
According to the report, the Chevrolet Bolt, the Bolt EUV and Ford’s F-150 Lightning pickup are the only available electric vehicles made by unionised workers in the United States.
The Bolt was the only other electric vehicle available when the Democrat purchased a Tesla two years ago to commute from her home in New York City to Washington DC.
The comments come amid a spat between Mr Musk and Democrats including Ms Ocasio-Cortez, who he accused of “hitting on me” after she tweeted that she was tired of a “billionaire with an ego problem”.
“Stop hitting on me, I’m really shy”, he tweeted back this month, in apparent acknowledgment that he was “a billionaire with an ego problem”.
Asked about the exchange and Mr Musk’s recent attacks on the Democratic Party, the congresswoman reportedly added on Wednesday: “He’s a billionaire. I could care less what he thinks”.
Mr Musk has recently claimed that he would be voting Republican for the first time and described Democrats as being the party of “division & hate”. He also rubbished US President Joe Biden of being ‘beholden’ to unions, in comparison to his predecessors Donald Trump and Barack Obama.
Tesla is not unionised and Mr Musk has issued anti-union messages in the past, attracting criticism.
