Former Tesla Inc TSLA executive Rohan Patel said on Tuesday that Kamala Harris getting elected as U.S. President in the upcoming elections will be better for the EV giant’s long-term success, despite company CEO Elon Musk putting his weight behind former President and Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump.
What Happened: Patel wrote in a post on X that Harris would be “far better” for Tesla’s core business of EVs and storage. However, it is much harder to determine who will be better on the vehicle autonomy part of the business, Patel said, while noting that neither party has been “particularly good” in their approach to autonomous vehicles (AV).
“…I'd normally trust reasonable (non-Trump) Republicans a bit more not to create a heavy handed AV approach. Sadly, Trump is such a nutcase and usually doesn't appoint the best people, so I'd probably still trust Kamala more even on the issues where I'd generally prefer a Republican,” Patel wrote.
The former executive also alleged that the Republican Presidential candidate wants to decelerate the advent of sustainable energy and transport.
Patel was Tesla’s vice president of global public policy and business development until April earlier this year.
Patel’s Take On Democratic Party-Tesla Relations: Earlier this month, Patel said that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed by the Democratic Party has "disproportionately" served in the EV giant's favor.
The Act disproportionately served Tesla over legacy automakers as the company is also involved in solar deployment and manufacturing, charging manufacturing and deployment, stationary storage manufacturing and deployment, battery manufacturing, and lithium refining, among other activities incentivized by the bill. Legacy automakers are not involved in many of these activities, he noted.
Patel has previously also refuted claims that Democrats hate Tesla.
“Even after the harshest tweets (by Tesla CEO Elon Musk) against Newsom or Biden or another Dem, their teams and governments did not shut me or my team out and were professional in working with us for the greater good,” Patel said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom and his team have “bent over backwards” to help the EV giant despite Musk's criticisms, he added.
Last month, Patel also said that the Biden administration treated the EV giant fairly in certain issues despite "surface-level disappointment" between the President and Musk.
"No doubt Biden is very biased towards unions and appoints pro-Union people to the nlrb making it easier to organize. But it didn’t often create substantive problems, and instead was more of a PR and surface-level disappointment," Patel wrote on X while adding that it is just his personal view.
Tesla CEO Sides With Trump: Musk officially endorsed Trump in July after a shooting incident on the latter at a rally in Pennsylvania. The former President is seeking the elimination of subsidies for electric vehicles.
However, Musk said during the company’s second-quarter earnings in late July that the impact of the elimination of subsidies would only be slight for Tesla but devastating for its competitors. The elimination of EV subsidies would probably help Tesla in the long term, he added.
Musk also had an interview with Trump on his social media platform X earlier this month wherein the two discussed the formation of a “government efficiency commission” aimed at preventing an accumulation of laws and regulations, among other topics. Musk has expressed willingness to be part of the commission.
Trump also expressed openness to appointing the billionaire to a cabinet or advisory role if he reclaims the White House in an interview with Reuters this week.
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