Biden administration reportedly brushed off Tesla Inc.’s TSLA application for about $100 million to fund a big-rig charging corridor, to the exasperation of the EV giant’s CEO Elon Musk.
What Happened: TechCrunch reported on Monday that Tesla had applied for funding for a big-rig charging corridor project. The information was confirmed by its project partner California's South Coast Air Quality Management District.
However, Tesla was not named in the list of 49 applicants to whom the Department of Transportation (DOT) gave over $635 million in funding on Friday to build EV charging infrastructure.
Tesla first requested funding in 2023 from the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure program to build nine semi-truck charging stations between its former headquarters in California to the southern border of Texas, officially called Project TESSERACT. However, the department chose other applicants over Tesla even then.
CEO Responds: Musk responded to the news on social media platform X with a brief, “Sigh.”
Why It Matters: The status of the big rig charging corridor is unclear. Tesla did not immediately respond to Benzinga‘s request for comment.
Tesla has its own fast charging network. Earlier this month, the company said that it opened over 11,000 supercharger stalls in 2024, taking the total number of superchargers to over 65,000.
The growth of Tesla's supercharger network was in question after the company announced layoffs of at least 10% of its global workforce in April. The layoffs impacted 500 members of the supercharging team and Rebecca Tinucci, Tesla's then Senior Director of Charging Infrastructure, left the company.
During Tesla's annual shareholder meeting in June, Musk, however, slammed rumors of the death of the supercharger network as "greatly exaggerated."
"Our supercharger network is continuing to grow," Musk said while adding the company will invest $500 million into expanding the network in 2024.
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