Why the ‘White House Car Show’ mattered to Elon Musk

UNITED STATES – It was not so long ago that Mr Elon Musk could not even get an invitation to the White House.

The year was 2021 and then United States President Joe Biden was announcing tighter pollution rules and promoting his electric vehicle policies.

Behind him on the lawn were gleaming examples – a Ford F-150 Lightning, a Chevrolet Bolt EV and a Jeep Wrangler – as well as the chief executives of the companies that made them. But the nation’s biggest electric-vehicle producer was nowhere to be seen.

“Seems odd that Tesla wasn’t invited,” Mr Musk tweeted before the event.

The Biden White House explained the snub by noting that the automakers that had been invited were the nation’s three largest employers of the United Auto Workers, a powerful union, and it suggested that the administration would find other ways to partner Tesla. (Union animus towards electric vehicles later became a problem for Mr Biden.)

But today, the moment is seen as a turning point in a feud between Mr Musk and Mr Biden that some Democrats say they have come to regret deeply.

“They left Elon out,” said Mr Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist who is working to get his party to embrace electric vehicles, “and now he hates them.”

It was hard not to think about that episode on March 11 when Mr Musk and US President Donald Trump lined up Teslas, including Cybertrucks, on the White House driveway and proceeded to rattle off their benefits like denizens of a suburban showroom.

“I love the product,” Mr Trump said.

“Try it,” Mr Musk said. “You’ll like it.”

Mr Musk now has the White House attention and promotion that he wanted several years ago – and with it, a pile of potential benefits for some of his companies. But it has come at a price.

He donated some US$300 million (S$400 million) largely through his own super political action committee to help Mr Trump get elected.

The New York Times reporters Theodore Schleifer and Maggie Haberman reported on March 11 that he has signalled a willingness to put an additional US$100 million into groups controlled by Mr Trump’s political operation.

His alliance with Mr Trump has also eaten into his customer base. Before the election, Mr Murphy said, Democrats were four times more likely than Republicans to buy an electric vehicle. Now, sales of Teslas are slumping, and some Democrats are turning theirs back in to dealers.

Mr Musk may be hoping to find a new market on the other end of the political spectrum. Mr Trump, who has spent years denigrating electric vehicles, insisted he was buying one, with a cheque.

Sean Hannity, a Trump ally, said he, too, would buy a Tesla Model S Plaid as a show of solidarity with Mr Musk.

“This thing rips,” he said on his Fox News show, “and you can go 400 miles (644km) without a charge.” NYTIMES