Elon Musk Takes A Swipe At Joe Biden As President Once Again Praises Ford, GM On EVs During State Of The Union Address

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk took a swipe at President Joe Biden for failing to mention the electric maker during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday.

What Happened: Biden did not mention Tesla in his hour-long remarks to the Congress on Tuesday night and instead praised legacy automakers General Motors Co GM and Ford Motor Co F for their electric vehicle investments and job creation in the United States.

“Ford is investing $11B to build electric vehicles—creating 11,000 jobs across the country,” Biden said to a joint session of the Congress. “GM is making the largest investment in its history—$7 billion to build electric vehicles, creating 4,000 jobs in Michigan.”

See Also: President Joe Biden Finally Acknowledges Tesla When It Comes To Future Of EVs...Well, Sort Of

The excerpts from Biden’s speech were shared on his Twitter account as well, evoking a response from the billionaire entrepreneur whose company currently leads in the electric vehicle market.

Musk provided his own comparison, saying Tesla created more than 50,000 jobs and invested more than double of GM and Ford’s consolidated investment of $18 billion toward making electric vehicles.

Why It Matters: Biden’s repeated Tesla snub and Musk’s reaction have become a common occurrence in recent months. Biden has repeatedly praised the role of Detroit-based traditional automakers in “leading the world” in electric vehicles.

The U.S. President, in February, finally publicly acknowledged Tesla for the first time, and called the Musk-led company the nation’s largest producer of electric vehicles.

Musk has in the past called out Biden’s infrastructure bill as insane and how the enormous spending would lead to a $3 trillion deficit. The world’s richest person has also targeted Biden for giving Tesla a skip as part of the federal government's conversations around electric vehicles. 

Price Action: Tesla shares closed 0.7% lower at $864.4 a share on Tuesday.

Photo: Courtesy of Heisenberg Media via Flickr