The State Department has announced that it is pausing a solicitation for armored electric vehicles, originally planned for the 2025 procurement list. The initial proposal included a budget of $400 million for armored Tesla vehicles, which has raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest due to Tesla CEO Elon Musk's close ties to the previous administration.
A State Department spokesperson clarified that no government contract has been awarded to Tesla or any other vehicle manufacturer for the production of armored electric vehicles. In response to a request from the Biden administration in December 2024, the State Department had been exploring interest from private companies to manufacture such vehicles.
Recent reports about the potential procurement involving Tesla prompted the State Department to edit the procurement document, removing Tesla's name and listing the budget item as 'electric vehicles' without specifying a manufacturer. The reasons for this edit were not directly addressed by the State Department.
While the typical next steps would involve issuing official solicitations to vehicle manufacturers for bids, the solicitation is currently on hold with no immediate plans for its release, according to a State Department official. In addition to concerns about conflicts of interest with Musk's company, the proposed plans also raise questions about potential contradictions with a previous executive order that paused all zero-emission vehicles.
Efforts to obtain responses from Tesla and the Department of Government Efficiency regarding their involvement in the solicitation have not yielded immediate results. Elon Musk, responding to inquiries, stated that he was unaware of any $400 million allocation to Tesla, indicating that no such information had been communicated to him.
