Tesla may want to kill EV incentives in the US because of Elon Musk's politics, but the automaker still wants them in other markets.
It highlights Tesla's clear problem of putting its CEO's politics above its mission.
Tesla is stuck in a strange situation in the US.
For the past few years, the automaker has been lobbying the Biden administration to reform federal EV incentives, which the government uses.
At the time, its CEO Elon Musk, who had been on a campaign to “kill the brain virus” since his daughter Vivian came out as trans, said he was against extending the tax credit as he was already preparing right-wing politicians.
But his company was still recruiting at that time.
Now, things are changing. Musk has become one of Donald Trump's biggest supporters, and has brought Tesla closer to his politics.
Trump has made it clear that he wants to end all EV incentives in the US, and this time, Musk is not alone in his support.
A recent report said Tesla spoke to Trump's transition team about what the automaker is up to by killing EV incentives.
This is Tesla, which is 15% owned by Musk, but the board has control, as evidenced by the results in his CEO compensation court case, which is consistent with the politics of its CEO in the US.
In other markets, things are different.
A newly discovered letter showed that Tesla spoke to the Labor Party following their recent win in the UK to lobby for more EV incentives and a higher tax on gasoline vehicles, the exact opposite of what Tesla and Musk currently stand for in the US.
In a letter to the new transport minister, Tesla's head of Europe, Joe Ward, acknowledges the UK's need to reduce its emissions and how important electric vehicles are to achieving this goal.
He suggests that the government bring back strong EV incentives by raising taxes on gasoline-powered vehicles:
The motives for the purchase have been widely discussed in public, if the Ministry of Finance were to consider any plans, these should be neutral. Given that new fossil fuel fueled vehicles have high gas mileage and a price needs to be set on this. The government should ask if those who still choose to buy a new car that pollutes the air, should pay more. This may create a revenue neutral model to support ZEV adoption.
The Tesla executive also lobbied for new rules for autonomous vehicles and gave the minister an opportunity to test.
Here is the book in full:
Electrek's Take
In the US, Tesla opposes removing EV incentives and in the UK, opposes increasing them.
To me, it seems that Tesla is stuck between a rock and a hard place – the rock is doing the right thing and the hard place is Elon Musk's politics.
If Tesla was truly committed to its mission of accelerating the advent of sustainable transportation and energy, it would be advocating for a fairer market where the external costs of gasoline-powered vehicles are accounted for and/or the benefits of electric vehicles are fairly compensated. .
That's exactly what it does in the UK, thanks to Joe Ward, but not in the US? Why?
The only answer to that question is Elon Musk.
Now Tesla is putting the politics of its CEO above its mission. Musk can't go public with more taxes on gasoline-powered cars or more incentives for EVs because that conflicts with Trump's politics, which has spent more than $250 million to restore energy.
He doesn't have to run Tesla again, and it couldn't be clearer than this situation.
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