Billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday hit back at Joe Biden after the US President failed to mention Tesla in a tweet in which he praised other American automakers, Ford and General Motors (GM).
Biden praised Ford and GM for their domestic electric vehicle (EV) production, which he said has led to the creation of thousands of jobs in the United States.
“Ford is investing $11B to build electric vehicles—creating 11,000 jobs across the country. GM is making the largest investment in its history—$7B to build electric vehicles, creating 4,000 jobs in Michigan,” Joe Biden tweeted.
Soon after the President’s tweet, Elon Musk spoke up for his company. Replying to Biden, the Tesla chief tweeted, “Tesla has created over 50,000 US jobs building electric vehicles and is investing more than double GM + Ford combined. (FYI to person controlling this Twitter).”
Tesla has created over 50,000 US jobs building electric vehicles & is investing more than double GM + Ford combined[fyi to person controlling this twitter]
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— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 2, 2022
In February, Biden had acknowledged the role of Tesla in the US electric vehicle manufacturing, after Musk repeatedly complained about being ignored.
Biden wants to give union-made, American-built electric vehicles an additional $4,500 tax incentive, setting up a clash between automakers Tesla and Toyota Motor Corp without US unionised workers on one side, and United Auto Workers-affiliated carmakers in Detroit on the other.
“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," Biden had said, adding other start-ups and saying manufacturing is coming "back to America after decades."
Last month, Biden met with General Motors Chief Executive Mary Barra, and the White House has repeatedly praised the Detroit automaker's electric vehicle efforts, even though it is selling far fewer EVs than Tesla.
After Biden's met with Barra in January and tweeted a video of the two talking, Musk replied "Starts with a T/Ends with an A/ESL in the middle" and then compared Biden to a "damp sock puppet".
Tesla recorded a $5.5 billion profit in 2021 on the rising demand for electric vehicles. The electric carmaker, which scored an 87 per cent jump in auto-deliveries last year in spite of the global semiconductor shortage, reported a 71 per cent rise in revenues to $53.8 billion.
The world's most valuable carmaker expects vehicle deliveries to grow by more than 50 per cent year-over-year in 2022.
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