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| The entrepreneur Elon Musk has joined a presidential advisory council. Sasha Maslov for The New York Times |
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Daily Report |
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It’s O.K. to feel a little confused about the direction the new
administration in Washington is taking. And that is before you consider
the case of Elon Musk and Tesla. |
| As James Stewart writes, Mr.
Musk, a brainy South African immigrant who has criticized Donald Trump
and built Tesla Motors and SolarCity — which benefit from government
subsidies — might seem the wrong fit in Washington these days. |
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And yet shares of the carmaker Tesla, which has absorbed solar power
company SolarCity, are going up. Analysts are even raising their
estimates of how high they could go. |
| Moreover, Mr. Musk has been a guest at two meetings of business leaders with Mr. Trump. What gives? |
| Maybe these strange bedfellows aren’t so strange. |
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Primarily, Tesla is both futuristic in its technology and traditional
as an operation. Unlike big software outfits, it employs a lot of people
with a relatively normal range of skills inside its factories. Tesla
has 25,000 workers, our article notes, and could double that if it
increases production in its battery factory. The factory is in Nevada,
one of Mr. Trump’s battleground states in the last election. |
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Mr. Musk, who likes big and bold visions, has discussed ways to rebuild
the United States energy grid, too. That would be another huge project
requiring traditional workers. |
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And while Mr. Musk has taken $2 billion in subsidies, he needs them
less now. Tesla will soon make 200,000 vehicles, which will trigger an
end to his federal subsidies. |
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And the subsidies paid out to the alternative energy industry appear to
have enabled enough research and market power to make its offerings increasingly price competitive with fossil fuels. |
| That means Mr. Trump could take credit for ending subsidies out of favor with his constituents, and Mr. Musk could prosper. |
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Then, too, Mr. Musk is himself a brash and successful billionaire,
something attractive to the president. At a recent business meeting, he
pressed Mr. Trump for a tax on carbon fuels, something the president did
not dismiss out of hand. |
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That is almost a mark of a big business coming into its own: when you
stop asking the government for handouts, and instead press it to
hurt your competitor. |
| — Quentin Hardy |
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