- President Biden on Tuesday acknowledged Tesla as the country's "largest electric vehicle manufacturer."
- For months, Biden has faced calls to include Tesla in the national EV conversation.
- CEO Elon Musk has been critical of the president for boosting Ford and GM while leaving out Tesla.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday called Tesla the country's "largest electric vehicle manufacturer" after facing repeated calls to acknowledge the company as a leader in the automotive and clean energy industries.
During a speech focused on boosting domestic electric vehicle manufacturing, Biden spoke of Tesla's influence in the industry — a departure from his usual praise for legacy automakers like Ford and General Motors.
The president mentioned that over $200 billion in manufacturing investments have been greenlit by companies since last year — while also announcing that the Australian company Tritium would construct a new plant in Tennessee and produce up to 30,000 electric vehicle chargers annually.
"Since 2021, companies have announced investments totaling more than $200 billion in domestic manufacturing here in America," he said. "From iconic companies like GM and Ford, building out new electric vehicle production [facilities], to Tesla, our nation's largest electric vehicle manufacturer, to innovative, younger companies like Rivian, building electric trucks, or ProTerra, building electric buses."
—Cheddar News 🧀 (@cheddar) February 8, 2022
In late January, a Change.org petition was launched to prod Biden to say "Tesla" and include the company in his push for electric vehicle manufacturing throughout the country.
The petition has since received nearly 59,000 signatures.
For months, Tesla CEO Elon Musk criticized Biden for not including the company in the larger national conversation about electric vehicles.
After Biden tweeted last month that "companies like GM and Ford are building more electric vehicles here at home than ever before" while appearing with General Motors CEO Mary Barra, Musk responded to his company's absence from the discussion.
"Starts with a T, Ends with an A, ESL in the middle," he wrote.
Musk has been critical of Biden in the past, calling for lawmakers to tank the Build Back Better Act — the seemingly doomed Democratic-led social-spending framework — while also stating that the president was "controlled by unions."
The chief executive's opinion of Biden has deteriorated markedly since last year.
At the start of Biden's presidency in January 2021, Musk told Fortune that he was amped up about the new administration's push to tackle climate change.
"I'm super fired up that the new administration is focused on climate," he said at the time.