A new report from Bloomberg suggests that Musk's new tack to destroy the bill comes after his lobbying to save the tax credits was unsuccessful. Musk responded that the budget bill negates all the cost savings supposedly achieved by the DOGE "at great personal cost and risk," alluding to the hit to Tesla's business.
But if you listened to Musk in the past, you would think the EV tax credit is not a big deal for Tesla EV sales vis-à-vis its competitors.
"I think it would be devastating for our competitors and for Tesla slightly," Musk said when asked about the future of the tax credits during Tesla's Q2 earnings call last year. "But long term probably actually helps Tesla, would be my guess."
Tesla can profitably produce its EVs, so at the time, Musk seemed fine with Congress potentially pulling the EV tax credit benefit.
But Musk has been changing his tune. In addition to his tirade trashing the GOP bill as a "disgusting abomination" and the Bloomberg report on Musk's lobbying to save the credit, he complained in a recent post about the bill's favorable tax treatment for carbon-based energy, but not clean electric.
"There is no change to tax incentives for oil & gas, just EV/solar," Musk wrote about the budget bill.
