Elon Musk has been in the news headlining for everything good and bad. When he announced his Twitter deal in April 2022, there was a positive uproar due to the promises of transforming it into “a digital town square of democracy”. However, the media reports turned negative due to the policy changes and dwindling revenue at the platform. The shareholders at his other venture, Tesla were also upset with the performance of the EV company.
The journey of the Electric Vehicle venture has been with lots of ups and downs since the inception of the company. In 2003, two noble engineers came together to execute the vision to produce an electricity-induced vehicle. JB Straubel, Elon Musk, and Ian Wright joined hands with them and served as co-founders. They started the Series A funding in 2004. However, the company, when they were producing the Roadster, was on the brink of bankruptcy. Now, Ralph Nader, an activist claims that the government provided funding to Musk during the bankruptcy.
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“You Are Lying”: Elon Musk Refutes Ralph Nader’s Government Funding Claim
Elon Musk, for the longest time, has been against the subsidies. He claimed that the government provided Tesla with the least subsidy compared to other competitors in the market. In 2021, he opposed the subsidies provided by Joe Biden’s “$1 trillion infrastructure bill”.
According to him, the government should nullify all these subsidies. Musk, since the beginning of the EV venture, did not want any involvement of the government.
When Tesla was going to go bankrupt in 2008, they did not take any aid from the government. They funded the Roadster project with $40 million in debt financing.
However, the consumer welfare activist Ralph Nader has claimed that Tesla was started with a huge welfare grant fund from the government. He tweeted, “Musk (@elonmusk) started Tesla with a huge U.S. government welfare grant. He has taken taxpayers to the cleaners for his factories and for Starlink. He is a gigantic corporate welfare king masquerading as a capitalist businessman”.
The Tesla owner has refuted these claims and said that he provided the initial funding. He replied, “Ralph Nader, you are lying – shame on you! I personally provided almost all Tesla funding, based on my proceeds from PayPal, from Series A in 2004 until Series C in 2007”.
He wrote, “The first meaningful government funding Tesla received was in Q2 2010 from a loan under the vehicle efficiency lending program. Tesla paid back that loan early with interest. Taxpayers actually made a profit”.
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The Billionaire Has Received Aid From The Government Several Times
Despite being anti-subsidies, there have been several times when Musk has received help from the government from the pandemic aid to erect Gigafactory. Elon Musk collected $517 million in environmental credits by selling environmental credits to other competitors.
During the pandemic, the federal government provided $600 billion worth of payroll benefits to various corporations. Though the Tesla owner criticized the funding, the car company mentioned the benefits.
Nevada provided various incentives to him to build a lithium-ion battery factory worth $5 billion. The former governor Brian Sandoval signed a deal with him. As per the deal, Tesla will receive $1.3 billion in tax breaks, tax credits, and other benefits for 20 years starting in 2014. The tax credits and incentives can be worth $725 million.
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