President Joe Biden spoke in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
President Joe Biden just publicly said the T-word— Tesla
—seeming to extend an olive branch to CEO Elon Musk. He doesn’t seem to have mentioned the company before, even as he has spoken about electric vehicles, so it is a small bit of good news for Tesla.
“Since 2021, companies have announced investments totaling more than $200 billion in domestic manufacturing,” said Biden in a briefing about steps his administration is taking to encourage EV adoption, noting that investment in the sector will create jobs. “From iconic companies, like GM and Ford building out new electric vehicle production, to Tesla, our nation’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer.”
Both Tesla stock (ticker: TSLA) and other EV-related shares traded higher.
Just mentioning Tesla might not seem like a big deal, but it hasn’t happened recently, perhaps ever. And the mention helps to dispel any concern investors might have had that Biden’s preference for Ford Motor (F) and General Motors (GM) would leave Tesla at a disadvantage in the marketplace.
Biden’s Build Back Better spending bill, for instance, included extra purchase credits for EVs built with unionized labor. Tesla employees aren’t represented by a union in the U.S. That bill didn’t pass after Sen. Joe Manchin decided to vote against it.
Before Build Back Better there were other times when Tesla didn’t get a mention, or an invitation. Tesla wasn’t invited to an EV summit back in August where Biden announced his goal to have EVs account for 50% of new cars sold in the U.S. by the end of the decade.
Musk responded with several tweets , including one where he spelled out the word Tesla in response to a tweeted video showing Biden with GM CEO Mary Barra.
Maybe the tweet worked. Now the president has mentioned Tesla. He also called out electric truck maker Rivian Automotive (RIVN) and electric bus maker Proterra (PTRA) Tuesday.
All the EV companies mentioned got a boost. Proterra shares rose 3.9%. Rivian stock ended up 4.4% higher on the day. Tesla stock rose 1.6%, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.8% and 1.1%, respectively.
Those gains are nothing compared with the move in shares of the EV-charging company Tritium DCFC (DCFC). Shares shot up 39.5% after the company announced plans to build a plant making EV charging equipment in Tennessee.
Biden goal is to make the U.S. a leader in EV technology.
Right now, China leads. It is the world’s largest market for new cars and for electric vehicles. There, EVs accounted for about 15% of new car sales in 2021, up from about 6% in 2020. In the U.S., EV penetration of new car sales is about 3%, including some hybrid-electric models.
Government policy and support–in the form of purchase credits nd other incentives–are part of the reason EVs are more popular in China than in the U.S. Now Biden is ramping up his support for the domestic EV industry, including Tesla.
