Elon Musk shared a piece on Sunday published on Bloomberg along with his thoughts on who exactly wrote it — Ford and UAW lobbyists. He also pointed out that Ford’s EVs are not even made in America. How does this serve the American taxpayer? It doesn’t.
The article, which touched upon Ford’s success with its Mustang Mach-E EV, noted that Ford surpassed a huge milestone in its conversion to electric vehicles. This is great news for Ford, for everyone who wants to see the EV market to grow, and ultimately for our climate and human society, but Tesla is so often overlooked and I can understand why Elon is frustrated. Tesla has made achievement after achievement, only to be snubbed at important moments. Some may see this as Elon taking shots at Ford, but I don’t. I see it as him pointing out the attempts to rewrite the history of EVs while excluding Tesla and its contributions.
This is written by Ford/UAW lobbyists, as they make their electric car in Mexico. Not obvious how this serves American taxpayers. https://t.co/FUUXARHlby
— Name (@elonmusk) September 12, 2021
And another part of this is that American-made should be the focus of our nation’s goals. We should reward American businesses making vehicles in America and not outsourcing the labor to Mexico and other places. One would think that the new changes that House Democrats have drafted to the $7,500 EV tax credit incentive is a good thing, but instead of rewarding American taxpayers for buying an EV, they are focusing on rewarding union-made cars and Mexico (fine for Mexico, but dubious policy from the US government). Unions are supposed to be the good guys here, advocating for workers’ rights, but this union has been wrought with scandals and corruption.
Excluding Tesla … Again
On behalf of the UAW, the White House excluded Tesla from its “EV event” last month, and it seems that the EV incentives bill working its way through Congress is doing the same thing at the moment — excluding Tesla in favor of the UAW. And it’s not just Tesla being excluded. Foreign automakers will also be excluded from this new incentive.
Considering that Tesla is the leading best-selling EV maker and top choice for EV buyers around the world, it’s surprising that such a bill is proposed to exclude the best seller. After all, selling as many EVs as possible is the goal here, right? The proposed plan would favor EVs made in the US at unionized plants, which excludes Tesla. Tesla buyers will not receive the extra $4,500 incentive.
Honda gave a statement about how unfair this was to its American workers, who work just as hard for Honda as other auto workers work at GM and Ford.
“Unfortunately, there are currently efforts underway in Congress to enact unfair, discriminatory policies that will favor EVs built by a union workforce that will limit consumer choice.”
“All American auto workers work hard to support their families, pay taxes, and support their communities. Our production associates in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, and Ohio deserve fair treatment from Congress and should not be penalized for their choice of a workplace. By providing fair and equitable treatment for all American auto workers who build EVs and by equally valuing their contributions, we can accelerate our shared environmental goal of achieving widespread EV deployment.”
Some Additional Thoughts
As an American, when we are told by our leaders that we should favor American companies first, I want to agree with this. After all, it appeals to that sense of patriotism and pride, right? However, Honda has a point. We shouldn’t punish other Americans who work for foreign-owned companies such as Honda. They do work as hard as the rest of us in our day-to-day jobs. There are several other “non-American” auto companies that also have factories in the US (Nissan, BMW, Toyota, etc.). Should those companies and workers be penalized simply because the workers haven’t created a union?
This comes across as stroking the ego of false “American” patriotism while leaders continue to do backroom dealings in favor of those paying the highest price. Yes, the new EV tax incentive bill would help Ford and other unionized companies sell more EVs, but will they actually sell more EVs?
It appears that the UAW is pulling the puppet strings of our political leaders and using those strings to benefit its own best interests. As Elon said, this doesn’t serve American taxpayers. Especially if one of the two companies that will benefit from this is known for outsourcing jobs to Mexico for cheaper wages.
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