President Joe Biden will have to do more to forge a link with the leading manufacturer of electric vehicles on American soil and by far the leading automotive company in the world by market capitalization.
Elon Musk is not about to get over having been snubbed by the Biden administration.
The Tesla (TSLA) co-founder and CEO took his time responding to Biden's outstretched hand a few days ago. If his answer is not direct, it is unlikely that he will go to the White House anytime soon, even if he were invited.
"Model 3 is literally the most made in America car in - well of course - America," Musk posted on his Twitter account on Feb. 16 in response to a statement from Biden dating back to Feb. 11. The Democratic President announced that day that his administration's commitment to converting the entire federal automobile fleet into electric vehicles.
"We're gearing up to make all 600,000 federal government vehicles electric, bringing more manufacturing jobs back to our country, and building supply chains here at home. We're making 'buy America' a reality - not just a promise," Biden wrote.
Musk, as often, took his time to respond to the Democratic president, who had taken several months to finally utter the word Tesla publicly. Based on a USA Today article saying that the Model 3 reached the number one spot in Cars.com’s 2021 American-Made Index (AMI), making it the first all-electric vehicle to top the list in its 16-year history, the richest man in the world wanted to remind the president to align his actions with his words.
Basically, if Biden wanted to buy American electric cars produced on American soil, logically he should order at least the Model 3, Tesla's entry-level vehicle.
"The No. 1 most American-made vehicle for 2021 is the Tesla Model 3," Cars.com announced last June.
Cars.com's annual survey, an 'independent annual list', “ranks the new vehicles that contribute most to the U.S. economy based on criteria ranging from U.S. factory jobs and manufacturing plants to parts sourcing."
"Tesla has now cemented itself firmly on Cars.com's American Made-Index, with the Model 3 and the Model Y taking the No. 1 and No. 3 spots, respectively," said at the time Kelsey Mays, Cars.com assistant managing editor and the AMI's lead researcher.
Tesla, The First Manufacturer of EVs in the U.S
The Model 3 and Model Y are both built at the Tesla factory in Fremont, California.
In view of this acerbic retort, it is safe to say that Musk is not ready to make peace with Biden.
The Democratic president managed for the first time to publicly pronounce the word Tesla on February 8 after having studiously ignoring the Austin-based company and its whimsical CEO for months.
“Since 2021, companies have announced investments totaling more than $200 billion in domestic manufacturing here in America," Biden said in a speech about U.S. auto manufacturing.
"From iconic companies like GM and Ford building out new electric vehicle production to Tesla — our nation’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer — to innovative younger companies like Rivian building electric trucks or Proterra building electric buses,” Biden added.
The acknowledgment of Tesla by the Biden administration came after protests from Musk that he was not invited by the White House to discuss the president's signature $1.75 trillion Build Back Better legislation, while the CEOs of Ford (F) and General Motors (GM) were.
Tesla is by far the leading manufacturer of electric vehicles in the United States, producing 1.91 million vehicles since 2009.
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