Tesla Cybertruck gained nationwide media consideration not too long ago when it was revealed that the U.S. Division of State deliberate to award the automaker $400 million for a contract that might 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 underneath the Biden Administration.
Now, it appears new particulars are coming ahead relating to the quantity of the award that the federal government deliberate to provide 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 referred to as out by U.S. Senator
Supporting tools might imply the armoring that was deliberate to be put in on these autos or probably infrastructure, like charging stations.
Nonetheless, the massive 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 seemingly 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 seemingly 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 approved to discuss the matter.” https://t.co/zDikXB6QQK
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) February 26, 2025
That’s whole hypothesis, after all, and can’t be confirmed. Evidently if the U.S. authorities have been to buy thousands and thousands of {dollars} price of EVs, it will seemingly go together with the producer with a confirmed observe document and the manufacturing capability to deal with such a large order.
Nonetheless, there isn’t any proof of collusion between Tesla and the Trump White Home, because the State Dept. revised the doc only a day later to indicate the corporate had not been formally chosen for the contract.
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