Is the US government trolling Tesla?

This week, President Biden gave GM, not Tesla, credit for "electrifying the entire auto industry." Huh? He also said, "Detroit is leading the world in electric vehicles." What? Well, it turns out things have been getting weird for a while. There's more... let's dive in.

Above: American automaker, Tesla, seems to be getting the cold shoulder from the administration (Source: Tesla)

In a bizarre move, Tesla will actually be penalized for being at the vanguard of the EV movement. They'll miss out on a $4,500 EV tax credit because, according to the Wall Street Journal, Biden's EV tax credit is "putting unions over the environment."

Furthermore, "Biden snubbed Tesla in an August White House meeting on electric vehicles with UAW officials and executives from Ford, GM and Stellantis, which count EVs as a fraction of their overall sales," whereas Tesla counts EVs as (ahem) 100% of their overall sales.

In response, Elon Musk said, “[The President] didn’t mention Tesla once, and praised GM and Ford for leading the EV revolution. Does this sound maybe a little biased or something?” 

Above: A few months back, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tries to explain why Tesla wasn't invited to the EV event (YouTube: CNBC Television)

Keep in mind — regardless of its EV credentials (which are stellar), Tesla also makes the most American-made car you can buy.

In addition, it looks like Tesla is facing a hater at the NHTSA as Duke University's Missy Cummings was appointed as the senior safety adviser by the Biden administration. Cummings has been a consistent critic of Tesla for years.

“Objectively, her track record is extremely biased against Tesla,” the company’s CEO Elon Musk tweeted as he became aware of the situation.

Above: Missy Cummings takes a shot at Tesla on Twitter (Source: Now-deleted Twitter account of Missy Cummings)

Cummings actually deleted her Twitter account recently. Hmmm. In any event, it's important to note that Tesla has historically scored 5-star safety ratings with the NHTSA. All Teslas earned top rankings for being the cars with the lowest probability of injury of any vehicle tested by the NHTSA — ever.

Only time will tell how many headaches Missy Cummings will cause for Tesla — it's already rumored she may appear in the "witness box" at an upcoming Autopilot-related trial.

Regardless, if the US government really wants to support the future of the auto industry, it sure seems to make sense to show some support for Tesla. After all, the company is working, non-stop, for a clean, green, zero-emissions future and that's something we can all get behind.

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Written by: Iqtidar Ali. An earlier version of this article was originally published by Tesla Oracle. Revised update edited by EVANNEX.