Biden finally acknowledges Tesla's EV leadership after a year of silence
President Joe Biden publicly acknowledged Tesla for the first time in his presidency on Tuesday, noting the company's status as the nation's largest producer of electric vehicles.
Biden's mention of Tesla came during a speech to promote American companies expanding the nation's EV infrastructure. It was sandwiched between shout-outs to legacy automakers General Motors and Ford Motor, as well as smaller EV companies Rivian Automotive and Proterra.
Biden had avoided mentioning the company so far as president, a decision White House aides say is driven by his perception that Tesla is anti-union.
The mention also comes after Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has spent months heavily criticizing, even trolling, the president and other elected officials in the Democratic party on Twitter and during press interviews.
Musk has taken umbrage with Biden's pro-union and infrastructure spending plans, as well as his apparent indifference to Musk, his companies and Tesla's leadership in electric vehicle manufacturing and charging infrastructure.
Musk's comments have ranged from calling Biden a “damp sock puppet in human form,” to accusing the president of being “controlled by unions.”
That swipe came after the Biden administration proposed an EV incentive package that allocated additional money for consumers who purchased electric vehicles, but only if the vehicles were built by unionized workers.
Musk has also voiced displeasure about Tesla not being invited to the White House to discuss electric vehicles alongside others such as GM and Ford.
Tesla's supporters even launched a social media and outdoor advertising campaign to pressure the president to give a nod to Tesla or Musk.
Alongside Tesla and others, Biden also praised fast charging equipment manufacturer Tritium on Tuesday for establishing a new manufacturing facility in Tennessee. And he praised Intel for its plans to build a major semiconductor chip factory in Ohio.
“Those semiconductors, microchips power virtually everything in our everyday lives. Cellphones, automobiles, refrigerators, the internet, the electric grid. Without semiconductors those things cannot fully function,” he noted.
Increased domestic production of chips in the U.S., Biden said, would enable more manufacturing here and help ease inflation.
“One of the reasons automobiles cost so much is—they're responsible for one-fifth of the recent inflation -- is because they lack semiconductors,” said Biden. “They're not able to build 'em quick enough, so the price goes up higher because there's fewer to sell.”
Then Biden named Tesla as an example of a company that has invested in American manufacturing.
“Since 2021, companies have announced investments totaling more than $200 billion in domestic manufacturing here in America. 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 said.
Biden uncharacteristically did not discuss unions much during the Tuesday event. While GM, Ford and Proterra have unionized workers, Tesla's workforce in the U,S. isn't unionized. Workforces for Rivian, and other EV start-ups also aren't organized today.
Biden did say, “Other countries recognize what's happening here. They want to buy American as well. They're ready to bet on America and American workers, workers who built the middle class earning good pay and benefits and the right to organize.”
Musk has vociferously opposed unions throughout his career as the CEO of Tesla.
In 2021, the US National Labor Relations Board found that Tesla had violated the National Labor Relations Act after the company prohibited employees from speaking with press without authorization, and after Musk said in a post on Twitter that unionizing would cause employees to lose stock options.
On Tuesday, following the president's speech, Musk appeared peevish and unimpressed. He posted a link to a story on a Tesla fan-site to the president's attention on the social media platform to emphasize that Tesla was the best-selling battery electric vehicle maker worldwide in 2021.
周二，总统乔·拜登首次公开承认特斯拉，并指出该公司是美国最大的电动汽车生产商。 拜登在一次演讲中提到了特斯拉，该演讲旨在促进美国公司扩大该国的电动汽车基础设施。它夹在对传统汽车制造商通用汽车和福特汽车以及较小的电动汽车公司 Rivian Automotive 和 Proterra 的大喊之间。
拜登在担任总统之前一直避免提及该公司，白宫助手称，这一决定是因为他认为特斯拉是反工会的。
此前，特斯拉和 SpaceX 首席执行官埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）几个月来一直在 Twitter 和新闻采访中对总统和民主党内的其他民选官员进行严厉批评，甚至拖钓。
马斯克对拜登的亲工会和基础设施支出计划以及他对马斯克、他的公司以及特斯拉在电动汽车制造和充电基础设施方面的领导地位的明显漠不关心感到不满。
马斯克的言论从称拜登为“人形的湿袜子木偶”到指责总统“受工会控制”不等。
在拜登政府提出了一项电动汽车激励计划之后，这一举措就发生了，该计划为购买电动汽车的消费者分配了额外的资金，但前提是这些汽车是由工会工人制造的。
马斯克还对特斯拉没有被邀请到白宫与通用汽车和福特等其他公司讨论电动汽车表示不满。
特斯拉的支持者甚至发起了一场社交媒体和户外广告活动，向总统施压，要求他向特斯拉或马斯克致敬。
除了特斯拉和其他公司，拜登周二还赞扬了快速充电设备制造商 Tritium 在田纳西州建立新的制造工厂。他还称赞英特尔计划在俄亥俄州建立一家大型半导体芯片工厂。
“那些半导体、微芯片几乎为我们日常生活中的一切提供动力。手机、汽车、冰箱、互联网、电网。没有半导体，这些东西就无法充分发挥作用，”他指出。
拜登说，美国国内芯片产量的增加将使这里的制造业更多，并有助于缓解通货膨胀。
拜登说：“汽车成本如此之高的一个原因是——它们造成了近期通胀的五分之一——是因为它们缺乏半导体。” “他们无法足够快地建造它们，所以价格会上涨，因为出售的东西更少。”
然后拜登将特斯拉列为投资美国制造业的公司的例子。
“自 2021 年以来，公司已宣布对美国国内制造业的投资总额超过 2000 亿美元。从通用汽车和福特等建立新电动汽车生产的标志性公司到美国最大的电动汽车制造商特斯拉，再到制造电动卡车的 Rivian 或制造电动巴士的 Proterra 等创新年轻公司，”拜登说。
拜登一反常态地在周二的活动中没有过多地讨论工会。虽然通用汽车、福特和 Proterra 有工人工会，但特斯拉在美国的劳动力没有加入工会。 Rivian 和其他 EV 初创企业的劳动力今天也没有组织起来。
拜登确实说过，“其他国家承认这里发生的事情。他们也想买美国货。他们准备押注美国和美国工人，这些工人建立了中产阶级，赚取了丰厚的薪水和福利以及组织的权利。”
在担任特斯拉 CEO 的整个职业生涯中，马斯克一直强烈反对工会。
2021年，美国国家劳资关系委员会在公司禁止员工未经授权与媒体交谈后，以及马斯克在推特上发文称工会化将导致员工失去股票期权后，发现特斯拉违反了《国家劳资关系法》。
周二，在总统发表演讲后，马斯克显得脾气暴躁，不为所动。他在特斯拉粉丝网站上发布了一个故事链接，以引起总统在社交媒体平台上的关注，以强调特斯拉是 2021 年全球最畅销的电池电动汽车制造商。
