by Gabrielle DeSantis

The recent White House EV executive order event in DC had CEOs from Ford and GM and the COO from Stellantis North America. Noticeably absent was Tesla‘s Elon Musk. The event was to mark Biden’s tightening fuel economy regulations. As the Biden administration has been pushing for more EVs in the industry, one would think that Musk would be spending a lot of time at the White House. 

However, that invite must have been lost in the mail because he has been notably absent at many of these kinds of events. Let’s take a look at why Elon isn’t getting flooded with invitations by the current administration.

The White House event that featured the Big Three

The White House event on clean car production featured Biden driving the new Jeep Wrangler 4xe PHEV around the south lawn has been hot news on social media. The press coverage shows the president jubilantly driving the Jeep around, something that sitting presidents are strictly forbidden to do. 

The drive was completely off script and was egged on by the COO from Stellantis North America, who proclaimed, “keys are in the Jeep.” Being a car guy, that’s all the president had to hear before bounding over and jumping behind the wheel to the astonishment of the crowd in attendance. Great press for Jeep, to be sure. 

However, notably absent from the event was a representative from Tesla, one of the country’s most popular manufacturers of EVs.

The most recognizable EV manufacturer was absent

As much fun as the whole thing appeared to be, one person was glaringly absent. Where was Elon Musk? Musk has been instrumental in making EV models mainstream and certainly making environmentally friendly choices for his company on the whole. So why wasn’t he in attendance?

The answer is pretty simple. Tesla is very anti-union. In fact, Tesla’s absence was reportedly due to the United Auto Workers (UAW) being in attendance at the event, an organization that Tesla has been fighting for years to keep out of its U.S. plants. 

Tesla fights to keep the unions out of its plants

Elon Musk has been fighting unionization at Tesla and his other companies for years. In a Twitter tweet from 2018, Musk said, “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing?” 

Three years later, NLRB found that Musk violated Federal Labor Law with that tweet. He also illegally fired an employee, Richard Ortiz, for union activity that was protected by law. Ortiz was part of a campaign called “Fair Future at Tesla,” a campaign started by the UAW to organize Tesla’s North American plants.

In the end, Tesla’s obvious absence was likely a political stance. Biden and the Democrats are counting on union votes, and the Big Three are all using UAW workers in their factories in the U.S. Tesla’s sour relationship with the UAW is likely why he was not present at the event, nor will he likely be invited to similar events in the future. Until Musk allows his plants to unionize, the current administration will likely distance themselves from the company. 

Ultimately, Musk may opt to move operations to India if tax cuts make it monetarily feasible. This would also help him avoid the scrutiny of those who want to unionize the plants, which he is hoping to avoid at any cost. Musk is a shrewd businessman and will cut costs for the company wherever he can. Tesla has been so enormously successful because of Musk, despite his long list of controversies. So, they will likely lead where he follows, but it’s not likely to be in the direction of the UAW.

RELATED: What’s Going On With Tesla?

The post Tesla and Elon Musk Weren’t Invited to the Biden White House Due to Anti-Union Labor Policies appeared first on MotorBiscuit.

by Gabrielle DeSantis

Make no mistake, an all-electric future is coming. The cost of ownership with electric cars drastically goes down, and new government regulations are forcing automakers to go green. But MarketWatch observed that some manufacturers will be selling them quicker than others, pledging to be all-electric within five years. The question is, which brands will be first, and how long will it take for everyone to hop on board?

GM is set to sell 100% electric the soonest

GM is already committed to only selling electric cars only by 2035. Other automakers, such as Nissan, say that they’ll be all-electric “in key markets” by 2030, but that isn’t entirely electric. Some cars in their upcoming lineup include the GMC Hummer. They’ve also stated that 30 new EV models will be spread across their brands, which include Chevy, Buick, and Cadillac.

Large chunks of Porsche, Kia/Hyundai, and Audi sales will be electric by 2025

After all the mess of the dieselgate scandals, Porsche and Audi got themselves into major trouble. And now, they’re finding ways to claw back from it. By 2025, Porsche aims to have 50% of sales generated by electric cars, and Audi is aiming for 35. And at that point, Audi claims buyers will have 20 EVs to choose from, which we assume includes trim levels, as Audi only sells 35 models across the globe right now (according to Cars.com). If that weren’t the case, it’d mean Audi would be selling 57 different cars

However, Audi and Porsche are slightly smaller luxury brands, with Audi selling about 1.7 million cars last year and Porsche selling just 57,000. But Kia and Hyundai combined sell roughly 2.5 million cars per year. So the fact that they’re announcing 40% of sales by 2025 is actually more impressive than Audi and Porsche since they’ll get more of them on the road.

Toyota and Mercedes project high electric car sales in 2030

Mercedes has already committed to eliminating new internal combustion engine projects, but that doesn’t exactly mean they’re done making them. All it means is that more engines will be discontinued, and replaced by electric battery architecture. That said, Mercedes aims to have 50% of all sales be electric by 2030, meaning that they’ll still make gas cars, they’ll just have older engines.

Toyota, however, has made questionable decisions when it comes to electric cars. Their plan seems almost nonexistent today, with some questioning if they’re against electric cars. And yet the claim that, by 2030, 70% of sales will be either electric or fuel cell cars. It’s clear the company is more interested in hydrogen power and hybrids rather than BEVs, but they’re still for a zero-emissions future.

Ford, Honda/Acura, and Nissan are all set for 40% sales by 2030

Ford, Honda (and their luxury division Acura), and Nissan are all aiming for 40% of sales to be electric by 2030. That said, Ford selling 40% electric would be more significant than Nissan, as they simply sell more cars. They’ve already introduced the Ford F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E, and plan to add to their lineup each year. Meanwhile, Nissan will be selling 20 BEVs available in China by next year, where electric car technology is miles ahead of the states.

Honda, however, is kind of the outlier in this equation, despite the fact that they’re also hoping to sell 40% EVs by 2030. They just announced the final generation NSX, with only 350 of these hybrid hypercars set to be made. And they’ve revealed the name for their next EV, fittingly dubbed the Prologue, but that’s about it. As of now, Honda’s plan is to use GM’s Ultium battery pack for their next electric cars, building their own e:Architecture to go all-electric sometime around 2040.

Stellantis and Volkswagen will have split electric car sales between the US and Europe

Rather than pick a lane, Stellantis and Volkswagen are splitting electric car sales between America and Europe. What’s more interesting, however, is that in both cases, the companies plan to sell more EVs in Europe than in the states. It makes sense since long road trips are an American tradition, something EVs can sort of do with intense route planning, while much of Europe is densely packed cities. Though perhaps we’re just shifting slower, even if Tesla’s roots are here in the states.

Volkswagen will produce the most electric vehicles, aiming for 50% sold in the USA and 70% over in Europe. Meanwhile, Stellantis, which encompasses Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat, Chrysler, Jeep, Ram, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, and other smaller brands, will only sell 35% electric in the states and 70% in Europe. This is partly because Peugeot and Citroen are European exclusive brands, so it makes sense that America’s is lower. But on the other side of that coin, there’s Jeep, Ram, and Chrystler, so who’s to say for sure.

BMW, Subaru, and Mazda are trailing behind

BMW and Subaru tried to pull a fast one to make their EV sales sound a bit better. In the case of BMW, they claim that 25% of their sales by the end of this year will be electric and hybrid. But the keyword is hybrid, which is still an emission spewing car (albeit a cleaner one). And they say that 25% of sales will only be in Europe, with no measurements on how they’re doing in the states.

That said, BMW is taking the MINI brand and shifting it to all-electric sales by 2030. So while it isn’t the BMW nameplate, it’s still a step in the right direction.

Subaru made a similar claim, though they’re after 40% global electric and hybrid sales by 2030. But there’s no telling the proportion of hybrids to electric cars they’ll be making/people will be buying. Some people would give up a gas car for a hybrid, but not an EV, as quick fill-ups and familiar routines are too important to them. It’s clever, but it’s not even close to fully dedicated electric cars.

Then there’s Mazda… sweet sweet Mazda. With plans for electric car sales to add up to 5% of total sales by 2030. Laughable in comparison to other automakers. And while they did reveal the Mazda MX-30 electric car, that’s all we’ve really seen thus far.

So if you’re one of the millions who think that Electric cars will take over the streets in the next 10 years, think again. EVs are certainly coming, and one day they’ll replace the gas car just as the gas car replaced the horse and buggy, but that day isn’t quite here yet.

RELATED: Electric Cars Will Take Over But Your Gas-Powered Car Won’t Die

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