In a move that was supposed to show unity between American automakers, our political leaders, and a promise to create a cleaner future, the world’s leading electric auto manufacturer, Tesla, was excluded from taking part. The White House confirmed that this was more or less a United Auto Workers union event that pretty much allowed UAW to run the show. In essence, it was more of a UAW photo op with the President of the United States than it was about clean energy, in my opinion.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 5, 2021
However, this snub towards Tesla turned out to be an excellent thing for Tesla in terms of advertising. I wrote the initial article and questioned whether or not the White House would snub Tesla. Not only did Elon Musk respond to it, but his meme response to a tweet by SquawkBox, which questioned Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg about Elon’s response to my article, set Twitter abuzz.
“Elon” was trending on Twitter, and my home feed was filled with either replies to Elon about Tesla’s exclusion or people sharing their thoughts. And let’s not forget the mass media, which picked up my article, and the smart reporter at the White House press event who asked the question we were all wondering: Why was Tesla excluded? This led to the White House not only confirming that Tesla was left out, but that this was basically a UAW event.
Tesla got the most free advertising from the POTUS EV event
— 🐶 Earl of FrunkPuppy 🐶 (@28delayslater) August 7, 2021
The inspiration for this article is the above tweet by Earl. I’ve seen other similar tweets, and honestly, being snubbed by the White House while your company is the leader of a product that the White House wants more of is kind of ironic, to say the least. People are going to notice and wonder why, and this is exactly more proof that Tesla doesn’t need to pay for advertising.
What I found odd was that no one wanted to mention Tesla by name, especially Secretary Buttigieg. It’s as if they were afraid to mention Tesla. I’ve seen tweets claiming that he is a Tesla owner, and this could be partly why — just a random thought/theory. Another reason is that our political leaders know that if they breathe the word “Tesla,” it would give Tesla instant free press and possibly open up another can of worms for the White House itself to sort. By not mentioning Tesla by name and deflecting to praising the “leaders of the industry,” our political leaders are using pretty words to say nothing at all.
WINNING
It seems to me that Tesla has received more advertising and promotional attention through being omitted from the White House event than if they had been present . . .
And the point coming through from Mainstream Media is about how important Tesla is . . .@elonmusk https://t.co/OuLBZdov1C
— JPR007 (@jpr007) August 6, 2021
Ford and GM are leaders of the auto industry, sure. I’ll give them that. However, they are not leaders of the EV industry. Ford is trying, I’ll give it that, but I’ve seen too many tweets by one of its top communicators trolling Tesla owners and trying to start drama with Elon. I have a theory about that — it’s marketing. He’s trying to get Tesla owners and enthusiasts talking about Ford, and by trolling, he’s doing just that. It’s an interesting, yet dirty, marketing tactic but it clearly works. I think it’s marketing because it’s the only thing that makes sense. I’ve even tweeted him advising him to stop focusing so much on Tesla. If you have a business and your focus is on other businesses, yours will fail. But if you are part of a company such as Ford, you can spare employees to do troll marketing without it affecting your business.
Again, that’s just a theory of mine and a bit off-topic. So back to what I was saying. Ford and GM and even Stellantis are leaders in their own right in the auto industry. They do well selling ICE vehicles. EVs, however, are Tesla’s domain. Tesla may not have been the first to make an EV, but it was the first to mass-produce one, and did so with competition laughing at it. This core reason is why many Tesla supporters were upset with President Biden for excluding Tesla on UAW’s behalf.
Another reason this was upsetting was that President Biden put politricks before EVs and a clean future. This shows where his loyalties lie, in my opinion. Yes, he wants a greener future and yes he’s a better president than Trump was, and no, I don’t regret voting for him. However, he’s human and humans are flawed. He’s also playing the political game — a game you have to play if you want to succeed in politics. Tesla doesn’t play these games and this is another reason why I, and many others, think it was excluded.
By making this a union-only event while setting an executive order, and by excluding Tesla, which is already well ahead of the automakers that were present at the event in terms of EV production, the White House inadvertently gave Tesla free press. Tesla was the star of the show that it didn’t even get to take part in.
And in the long run, this is a win for EVs, which translates to a win for our planet.