Associated Press
- Maye Musk dissed President Joe Biden for saying GM is leading auto electrification in the US.
- Biden visited GM's new EV plant last week and took a spin in its electric Hummer.
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk joked about Biden's lack of interest in his company on Twitter.
Maye Musk took a dig at President Joe Biden after he failed to mention Tesla in a recent public address on the future of electric cars.
Biden visited Detroit on Wednesday for the grand opening of General Motor's new electric vehicle plant, Factory Zero. During his speech at the event, Biden lauded GM CEO Mary Barra's work toward an all-electric future.
"You electrified the entire automobile industry," Biden said. "You led — and it matters — in drastically improving the climate by reducing hundreds of millions of barrels of oil that will not be used when we're all electric."
GM plans to have an all-electric vehicle line-up by 2035, but the vast majority of the automaker's sales are still from combustion-engine vehicles, while Tesla cars account for nearly 80% of the EV market in the US — a point Musk, his mother, and his fans quickly seized upon on social media.
"Biden's speech was written 20 years ago, just before GM killed the electric car," Maye Musk tweeted. "His speechwriter uploaded the wrong file."
—Maye Musk (@mayemusk) November 18, 2021
In her tweet, the Tesla CEO's mother hearkens back to 2003, when GM cancelled its electric car program, saying it could not sell enough of the EV1 to turn a profit on the vehicle. Nearly 20 years later, Tesla has become the second-fastest company in history to hit a $1 trillion valuation while only producing electric vehicles.
Elon Musk responded to Maye Musk's tweet with a "sigh."
After the event, both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took to Twitter to praise GM's work. Biden posted a photo of himself in GM's new electric Hummer.
—President Biden (@POTUS) November 18, 2021
Tesla fans were quick to point out Biden and Harris' failure to mention Tesla's success and Elon Musk took a playful jab at the two politicians.
"Maybe they are NPCs [non-player characters] and Tesla just isn't in their dialogue tree," he tweeted on Monday. "Let's see if we can get them to say the word 'Tesla,'" Musk added.
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 22, 2021
It's not the first time that Biden has appeared to snub Tesla. Earlier this year, the White House failed to invite Tesla to its EV summit. At the time, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked whether Tesla was excluded from the event because its employees were not part of an automotive union.
"I'll let you draw your own conclusion," she said.
Musk has publicly discouraged union efforts at his company. In March, the National Labor Relations Board called for the CEO to delete a tweet that was seen as threatening to labor organizers within the company.
Spokespeople for Tesla and the White House did not respond to a request for comment from Insider.
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