Tesla loves EV subsidies
Elon, through Tesla, has been one of America’s biggest advocates of direct and indirect EV subsidies—and of punishments for Tesla’s competitors.
Myth: Elon Musk opposes all EV subsidies.
Truth: Elon, through Tesla, has been one of America’s biggest advocates of direct and indirect EV subsidies—and of punishments for Tesla’s competitors.
Elon Musk likes to tell us that he is against all energy subsidies, including EV subsidies.
Yet the company he runs is one of America’s biggest and most successful advocates of EV subsidies.
What gives?1
Tesla under Elon Musk’s leadership has consistently advocated for EV subsidies in various forms, including:
1) Biden’s EV mandate (the most extreme form of subsidy)
2) Biden’s EV subsidies (a direct EV subsidy)
3) Biden’s heightened “CAFE” standards (an indirect EV subsidy)1) Tesla supported Biden’s EV mandate
In 2021 Tesla advocated for a more extreme version of Biden’s infamous EV mandate: “Protecting the Public Health and Welfare Requires 100% EV Sales By 2030”
Mandates are the most extreme EV subsidies since you must pay for EVs at any price.2
2) Tesla supported direct EV subsidies in Biden’s IRA
Tesla advocated for EV subsidies that handed out up to $7,500 to new EV buyers.
Tesla said these subsidies will “protect the country’s public health and welfare by transitioning away from internal-combustion technology.”3
3) Tesla supported indirect EV subsidies in the form of irrational fuel economy standards.
In 2021, Tesla advocated for fuel economy (”CAFE”) standards, which subsidize EVs by requiring automakers to buy a fortune in “credits” from EV makers (like Tesla!) in order to comply.4
Tesla has derived huge financial benefits from the subsidies it’s successfully advocated for.
According to E&E News, Tesla has made over $10 billion since 2014 just from selling “green” credits that other companies were compelled to buy under various indirect EV subsidies.5
Tesla has also supported EV subsidies at the state level.
According to California Governor Newsom’s office, Tesla has received over $3.2 billion dollars in direct and indirect EV subsidies from the state of California between 2009 to 2022.6
Even with lavish EV subsidies, only 8.1% of vehicles sold in 2024 were EVs—almost all from luxury brands like Tesla. Most poor and middle class Americans can’t afford to deal with EV cost, range, and inconvenience issues—and yet subsidies force them to pay for other people’s EVs.7
America’s grid is already struggling because supply has not kept up with demand—but thanks to the EV subsidies Tesla has advocated for, our grid is being overloaded with even more (artificial) demand from EVs, putting us at serious risk of catastrophic electricity shortages.
A common refrain from Elon is that people should definitely believe he is opposed to EV subsidies because Tesla, being superior to its competitors, would benefit if all the EV subsidies went away.
But if this is the case, why does Tesla keep lobbying for more subsidies?
Elon Musk’s commentary about the recent cuts to EV subsidies in the “Big Beautiful Bill” would have you believe that EVs are no longer subsidized at all.
In reality, EVs still receive massive direct and indirect subsidies via a complex web of federal and state policies.
EV subsidies are so much further from dead than most people realize.
Here’s a list of 9 federal policies currently still in existence that directly or indirectly subsidize EVs in America.
See this 2025 paper by the American Energy Institute, which finds that the average EV car receives between $90,331 and $148,904 in subsidies (!) when accounting for the entire web of government subsidies, preferences, and mandates for EVs.8
Even though Tesla has consistently advocated for various kinds of EV subsidies, Elon Musk has totally failed to acknowledge this. Instead he:
1) Insists that he remains opposed to EV subsidies
2) Pretends EV subsidies aren’t a huge contributor to his business and net worthI support eliminating all subsidies of any sort, including the many EV subsidies still in existence.
I’ll believe that Elon Musk supports the same when Tesla stops advocating for more EV subsidies and starts advocating to get rid of all remaining EV subsidies!
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Thanks for the chart showing 9 subsidies for EVs, a remnant of the deep state. It's good to see that 4 of them are in process for being repealed, and of course the big one was halted Sept.30th.
Elon Musk took advantage of every possible subsidy and lobbied for their continuance in the past, but he may have changed. He hasn't lobbied for them recently, and has agreed with President Trump on many things, although with a few arguments along the way.