Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk on Sunday hit out against Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F) for making its battery-powered Mustang Mach-E models in Mexico rather than the United States.
What Happened: Musk’s bone of contention was related to a tweet from Whole Mars Blog that pointed out how new union-built electric vehicles may get a $4,500 tax incentive, a jump of 80%, if a new proposal is voted.
Under a 10-year proposal by U.S. House Democratic lawmakers, union-made electric vehicles will get higher subsidies.
The move is expected to work in favor of legacy automakers such as Ford, General Motors Co (NYSE:GM) and others who have workers represented by the United Auto Workers.
In contrast, Tesla workers are not represented by any unions and the Palo Alto, California-based company is known to pay its employees above-minimum-wage rate.
Musk shared a four-month-old Bloomberg News report, which said the Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford has built more electric Mustang Mach-Es at a plant in Mexico than the traditional internal combustion engine Mustangs that are built at a factory in Michigan.
The billionaire entrepreneur said the Bloomberg piece was written by a Ford and a United Auto Workers lobbyist as making those cars outside the U.S. does not serve American taxpayers.
Ford, until May this year, had built a total of 27,816 electric Mustang Mach-Es compared to 26,089 copies of the traditional internal combustion engine Mustang.
The automaker has maintained that trend so far this year. Mustang Mach-Es outshone the traditional internal combustion production numbers at 45,826 vehicles built year-to-date, compared with the 42,070 Mustangs built so far this year, company data shows.
Minutes later Musk agreed with a fan tweet saying Tesla is the “most American” car out there.
The bill is set to be voted on Tuesday.
Price Action: Tesla shares closed 2.46% lower at $736.27 on Friday and those of Ford closed 0.63% lower at $12.68.
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