Elon Musk Says Ford and Auto Workers Union Drafted New Electric Car Incentive Bill

Tesla CEO Elon Musk commented on Democrats’ new federal reform of electric car incentives, which includes a big benefit for unions.

Musk alleged that Ford and the United Auto Workers union drafted the new bill.

As we reported last week, Democrats unveiled the latest version of their federal electric vehicle incentive reform bill, which they plan to push through as part of their social spending bill. $ 3.5 trillion.

These were several changes from previously proposed reforms, but the most significant is an additional benefit of $ 4,500 for electric vehicles coming out of factories where workers are part of a union.

This puts several foreign automakers at a disadvantage who produce vehicles without unionized workers.

Domestically, this gives virtually every American automaker a huge advantage except Tesla.

The automaker and its workers have resisted UAW’s efforts to unionize the Fremont plant, where Tesla produces all of its vehicles for the U.S. market.

Last night on Twitter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he believed lobbyists for Ford and the UAW were behind the new wording for the bill:

“This is written by Ford / UAW lobbyists as they build their electric car in Mexico. It’s not clear how this serves American taxpayers. “

While there is no evidence behind the allegation, tracking the money shows that Ford and the UAW likely had a lot of influence behind the new legislation.

There is no doubt that the Big Three – Michigan’s Ford, GM and Chrysler – and the UAW workers they employ will benefit the most from these changes.

It turns out that Dan Kildee, US representative for Michigan’s 5th Congressional District, who arguably could not be elected without the support of the UAW, was behind some of these changes.

Musk also singled out Ford, which will particularly benefit from the reform change that grants a five-year grace period for electric vehicles produced outside the United States to continue to benefit from the $ 7,500 incentive.

Ford has invested heavily in the production of its Mustang Mach-E, its first next-generation all-electric vehicle, at a plant in Mexico.

Musk is not the only one voicing his displeasure with the new language regarding unions in the new legislation.

Honda and Toyota have both said they are against it, but they also don’t produce electric vehicles in the United States.

Electrek‘stake

My advice is simple. I am pro everything that will accelerate the advent of electric transport. This is the most important part. This new legislation will undoubtedly achieve this. So if it’s between that and nothing, I’m definitely for it.

However, I am certainly disappointed that they are using such important new legislation to advance a political agenda that has nothing to do with accelerating electric transport. The incentive to buy electric vehicles is said to represent their greater value for the environment and the health of the population compared to their fossil fuel-powered counterparts. Whether you are in favor of unions or not, you can agree that whether or not unionized workers make electric vehicles has nothing to do with the magnitude of their environmental and health impacts. It’s just about making it political and it doesn’t really focus on increasing the adoption of electric vehicles.

This is also why I am actually for the five-year grace period for electric vehicles produced outside of the United States. This will avoid temporarily slowing the adoption of electric vehicles in the United States and also avoid similar protectionist retaliation from foreign markets that obtain electric vehicles from the United States.

Back to the union issue, I am not anti-union. The workers who come together for collective bargaining power mean something to me. However, it can also get out of hand when greed and corruption are involved, and we’ve seen this happen with the UAW.

Tesla fought fiercely against the unionization of the UAW at the Fremont plant, sometimes even illegally according to the NLRB.

While the UAW appears to be out of the question, Tesla workers could potentially form their separate UAW union, and then Tesla vehicle buyers would have access to the additional incentive of $ 4,500.

Obviously, this is not an ideal situation. I think the value of the incentive should just represent the least negative impact EVs have on the environment compared to their gasoline-powered counterparts.

But they made the game, you might as well play it.

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