Unique: Tesla’s Musk met prime Biden officers on EVs in Washington Friday

WASHINGTON, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Tesla (TSLA.O) Chief Government Elon Musk met two prime White Home officers on Friday in Washington to debate how the automobile maker and Democratic President Joe Biden might work collectively to advance electrical automobile manufacturing and velocity electrification of U.S. automobile networks.

Musk met John Podesta, a Democratic stalwart who serves as Biden’s senior advisor for clear vitality innovation, and Mitch Landrieu, who oversees infrastructure spending, a White Home spokesperson instructed Reuters.

“John Podesta and Mitch Landrieu met with Elon Musk to debate shared targets round electrification and the way the Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation and Inflation Discount Act can advance electrical automobile manufacturing and charging in addition to the broader reason for electrification,” the White Home spokesperson mentioned.

Musk responded on Twitter to a hyperlink to an earlier model of this story with “True.”

A Reuters witness on Friday noticed Podesta, Landrieu and Musk getting into a downtown constructing that homes each Tesla’s Washington lobbying operation and the Middle for American Progress, a assume tank Podesta based. Landrieu and Podesta left about half an hour later and didn’t reply questions.

Musk left about 45 minutes after Podesta and Landrieu. He too ignored questions from a Reuters reporter.

BIDEN, MUSK TENSIONS

Relations have typically appeared antagonistic between Biden, who has pushed for corporations to make use of union labor, and Musk, who has pushed to maintain unions out of his factories.

Musk referred to as Biden “a moist sock puppet in human kind” final 12 months after Biden highlighted EV manufacturing by GM and Ford in a tweet however not noted Tesla.

Biden solely publicly acknowledged the position of Tesla in U.S. electrical automobile manufacturing over a 12 months after taking workplace, after Musk repeatedly complained about being ignored.

In June, Biden in contrast Tesla unfavorably to Ford and sarcastically wished Musk “a lot of luck” on his “journey to the moon” after the billionaire expressed reservations concerning the economic system.

Nonetheless, Musk has long-standing vital relationships with the U.S. authorities, and people have continued beneath the Biden administration.

Tesla has benefited from tax subsidies given to patrons of its electrical automobiles whereas SpaceX, Musk’s rocket firm, has contracts value billions of {dollars} to ship astronauts and cargo to and from the Worldwide Area Station, and to construct a moon lander.

U.S. customers who purchased Teslas grew to become eligible once more this month for as much as $7,500 in client tax credit, beneath the $430 billion U.S. Inflation Discount Act (IRA) handed final August. An earlier tax credit score for Tesla patrons expired after the automaker bought its first 200,000 automobiles in america.

The regulation imposes necessities that EVs receiving the tax credit should be North American-made. There are additionally caps on automobile costs and earnings for patrons who’re eligible for the credit.

The regulation additionally units new battery sourcing restrictions anticipated to take impact in March. It additionally consists of new U.S. battery manufacturing credit that Musk mentioned earlier this week might have important advantages to the corporate.

Reporting by Nandita Bose, David Shepardson and Raphael Satter; Enhancing by Heather Timmons, David Gregorio and Rosalba O’Brien

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Rules.