Tesla Cybertruck gained nationwide media consideration just lately when it was revealed that the U.S. Division of State deliberate to award the automaker $400 million for a contract that may have armored variations of the all-electric pickup used for the protected transportation of politicians.
Whereas the preliminary experiences claimed this was collusion between President Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, there was one element that was quietly unnoticed: these talks between Tesla and the U.S. authorities began below the Biden Administration.
Now, it appears new particulars are coming ahead relating to the quantity of the award that the federal government deliberate to offer Tesla, which has now been modified to take out any reference to the corporate particularly.
NPR is reporting {that a} new doc from the State Division reveals that the Biden Administration’s State Division deliberate to spend solely $483,000 on electrical autos and $3 million on “supporting tools.”
Tesla’s already-resolved State Dept. contract will get known as out by U.S. Senator
Supporting tools may imply the armoring that was deliberate to be put in on these autos or doubtlessly infrastructure, like charging stations.
Nonetheless, the large query is how simply $3.4 million went to $400 million, the sum that was listed a couple of weeks in the past when the story initially broke.
One Biden White Home official who spoke to NPR mentioned they don’t assume it was a mistake:
“I don’t assume this can be a clerical error. It was doubtless somebody who’s new in [the] State [Department] who determined, ‘OK, we’re gonna do that with Tesla.”
🚨A fmr Biden Admin claims this was intentional:
“I don’t assume this can be a clerical error. It was doubtless somebody who’s new in [the] State [Department] who determined, ‘OK, we’re gonna do that with Tesla,’” mentioned the previous official, who was not licensed to discuss the matter.” https://t.co/zDikXB6QQK
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) February 26, 2025
That’s whole hypothesis, after all, and can’t be confirmed. It appears that evidently if the U.S. authorities had been to buy thousands and thousands of {dollars} price of EVs, it might seemingly go together with the producer with a confirmed observe report and the manufacturing capability to deal with such a large order.
Nonetheless, there isn’t a proof of collusion between Tesla and the Trump White Home, because the State Dept. revised the doc only a day later to point out the corporate had not been formally chosen for the contract.
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