Tesla not invited for United States Electric Vehicle Summit, 'seems odd' Elon Musk says

The White House, on Thursday, held an ambitious meeting of electric vehicle (EV) makers but sans the country’s largest EV manufacturer- Tesla. The rendezvous hosted by President Joe Biden witnessed the presence of executives and officials from General Motors(GM) and Ford (F) as well as Stellantis, the company formed by a merger between Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA. All three manufacturers are a sliver of the country’s total EV production but it is imperative to note that Tesla is a prime manufacturer of EVs with more than 499,550 cars delivered last year.  

Why was Tesla not invited?

According to a report by CNN, the meeting also saw members of the United Auto Workers union. The union has been in a tiff with Tesla after the firm fired one of its employees who was involved in union organizing. Additionally, the union also accused Tesla chief of threatening its employees, in a tweet, of losing stock options in case they formed a union. Matters escalated after the case was dragged to the National Labor Relations Board, which ruled in the favour of the union and asked Musk to delete what it termed as an “illegal” tweet. 

Speaking on the same in a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that "Well, we, of course, welcome the efforts of 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. "I would not expect this is the last time we talk about clean cars and the move towards electric vehicles, and we look forward to having a range of partners in that effort." She did not specifiy if not being a part of the union was excatly the reason that Tesla wasn't invited. 

How did Elon Musk respond?

On Thursday, the 50-year-old put out a subtle tweet about the apparent snub. "Yeah, seems odd that Tesla wasn't invited," the company's CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet overnight.

Labour Unions in the US date back to as early as the 19th century and have a strong say in the country’s economy. As of 2020, 7.2 million employees in the public sector and 7.1 million workers in the private sector belonged to unions across the 50 states of America, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics. 

Image: AP