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It seems President Joe Biden has finally expanded his repertoire of automaker companies, finally deigning to mention Tesla, while before, it was always GM and Ford. While Biden has repeatedly mentioned the need for the US to get electric vehicles, he only mentioned General Motors and Ford till now, even though their EV programs have not stepped up to the capacity that Tesla has.But now, the silent embargo has lifted and POTUS has mentioned Tesla. Is Elon Musk pleased?
President Joe Biden Mentions Tesla
Tesla Investor and Twitter user Sawyer Merritt shared the speech as well, with the caption, “President Biden just acknowledged Tesla as the nation’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer!”
Joe Biden’s presidency began in 2021 and since then, he has often mentioned electric vehicles being the need of the hour. But after staying mum on Tesla for so long, he’s finally uttered the name in a speech, giving it its due as the country’s “largest electric vehicle manufacturer.”
Biden recently delivered a speech, labeled by the White House as “President Biden Delivers Remarks on Rebuilding Our Manufacturing to Make More in America,” in which he mentions Tesla.
Said President Biden, “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 [facilities], to Tesla, our nation’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer, to innovative, younger companies like Rivian, building electric trucks, or ProTerra, building electric buses.”
He also went on to say, “These companies joining Intel, bringing microchip manufacturing back to America after decades of decay — from Texas Instruments to Samsung in Texas, to TSMC in Arizona.”
Merritt marked Elon Musk on the tweet itself, which the man replied to with an emoji.
Did A Change.Org Petition Bring About The Mention?
For some reason, the Joe Biden administration had been very reticent up until now, to talk about Tesla and the fact that it is the leading manufacturer of EVs in the US. There was a Change.org petition as well, that gained thousands of signatures and had a simple goal. The petition called it “for President Biden, asking him to acknowledge Tesla's leadership in regard to electric vehicles.”
So clearly, Biden is okay giving credit where it is due, even if the Twitterati felt that “his eye twitched while saying, Tesla.” No one knows why Biden was silent on Tesla, to begin with, although Elon Musk gave a fairly cohesive introduction to the brand in a tweet to POTUS, mentioned above
Sources: Twitter, TheWhiteHouse, Change.org