The Biden administration — and President Joe Biden in particular — has favored General Motors over Tesla when it comes to electric vehicle manufacturing.
During this year’s State of the Union speech, for example, Biden said, “GM is making the largest investment in its history — $7 billion to build electric vehicles, creating 4,000 jobs in Michigan.” He didn’t mention Tesla once.
That’s not going to be a good look now that GM announced it’s latest investment in electric vehicle production will be south of the border.
On Monday, CNBC reported, GM announced that the all-electric version of the Chevrolet Blazer will be manufactured at the automaker’s plant in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico.
(At The Western Journal, we’ve been chronicling how the Biden administration’s obsession with electric vehicles isn’t going to turn out as planned: It won’t create as many jobs as promised or produce enough vehicles that can reliably replace gas-powered cars for most families. We’ll keep bringing America the truth the mainstream media won’t. You can help us by subscribing.)
Now, granted, one could make the argument that the regular Chevy Blazer is assembled at the Ramos Arizpe plant, too. That argument is pretty easy to shoot down, however.
In fact, Chevy did it themselves when they announced the Blazer EV.
“It is Blazer by name … and the vibe of Blazer, but there’s nothing shared from these two vehicles,” Chevrolet Vice President Scott Bell said.
Except, of course, for the shared fact neither will be built by American workers.
It didn’t take long for Musk to hit back at the hypocrisy.
“Teslas are the most made-in-USA vehicles,” Musk tweeted after the news was revealed.
Teslas are the most made-in-USA vehicles
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 19, 2022
And, lest we forget, it’s not just the State of the Union where the Biden administration was snubbing Tesla, either.
After Tesla wasn’t invited to a White House clean-car event last August, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was asked why they were left out during a CNBC interview. Buttigieg said he was “not sure” but implied it had to do with Tesla being a “luxury” brand.
“We’re excited about all of the momentum for making sure that Americans can drive electric vehicles going into the future,” Buttigieg said.
“And by the way, we’re also moving toward a future where this is all across the market. I don’t want there to be a perception that this is just a kind of luxury thing, or that this is just for cars that you use to zip around cities.”
GM’s Blazer EV will start at $45,000 but go all the way up to $66,000 for an “SS” performance model, according to CNBC. While not as expensive as Tesla’s Model Y crossover, which it’s competing with, that’s still not cheap; the average Kelly Blue Book price for a gas-powered car is $25,240, according to the New York Post.
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Of course, a bigger factor might have to do with the fact Tesla isn’t unionized. As NPR reported in March, Elon Musk has gone as far as to publicly dare the United Auto Workers to unionize the workforce, predicting it will fail because its employees receive good treatment and compensation.
“I’d like hereby to invite UAW to hold a union vote at their convenience. Tesla will do nothing to stop them,” he tweeted.
Our real challenge is Bay Area has negative unemployment, so if we don’t treat and compensate our (awesome) people well, they have many other offers and will just leave!
I’d like hereby to invite UAW to hold a union vote at their convenience. Tesla will do nothing to stop them.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2022
Then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki was more forthcoming about Tesla’s lack of unionization being part of the reason why they weren’t invited to the clean-car event.
“Well, we, of course, welcome the efforts of all automakers who recognize the potential of an electric vehicle future and support efforts that will help reach the president’s goal. And certainly, Tesla is one of those companies,” Psaki said at the time, according to Fox News.
“Today, it’s the three largest employers of the United Auto Workers, and the UAW president who will stand with President Biden as he announces his ambitious new target, but I would not expect this is the last time we talk about clean cars, the move toward electric vehicles, and we look forward to having a range of partners in that effort.”
Psaki was then pressed as to whether Tesla’s non-union status had anything to do with the fact they weren’t invited. She merely reiterated that the companies in attendance represented “the three largest employers of the United Auto Workers.”
“I’ll let you draw your own conclusions,” she added.
There’s also the fact Tesla moved its operations from a blue state to a red state, officially decamping from California and moving to Texas in December of 2021, Business Insider noted.
Joe Biden loves him some unions, after all. And he’s all for blue-state policies like the ones that drove Tesla out of California and into Texas.
And yet, while Tesla keeps production in America, GM will be building the Blazer EV down in Mexico. An astute president would take a lesson from this. So, in other words, don’t expect Biden to learn a thing.
