Elon Musk Tells Shareholders A Trump Presidency Will Not Affect Tesla

Elon Musk says a Donald Trump presidency is not a concern for Tesla, Business Insider reported.

Musk told shareholders last week that eliminating zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) credits could actually boost Tesla’s competitive advantage.

Trump had previously said that global warming is a concept “created by and for the Chinese” and vowed to get out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Trump’s plans regarding climate change had many worried about the clean-car credit program.

Nine states and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) have a ZEV order, which dictates auto companies to sell a fixed amount of zero-emission vehicles. If car companies who cannot meet the demand of credits can buy them from other companies who have an excess of ZEV credits.

Tesla is one of those companies that have a surplus of credits. It made $139 million in the third quarter from selling to other companies, according to Business Insider. However, there is an oversupply in the market and Tesla has had a hard time making money from it, especially in the second quarter.

“The California Air Resources Board is being incredibly weak in its application of ZEV credits,” the Musk said during the summer in a rant. “The standards are pathetically low... There’s massive lobbying by the big car companies to prevent CARB from increasing the ZEV credit mandate, which they absolutely damn well should. It’s a crying shame that they haven’t. And as a result, you can barely sell the ZEV credits for pennies on the dollar.”

Musk isn’t against the clean-car credits, but says that such programs “don’t scale or are disadvantageous,” which means a Trump presidency wouldn’t have an impact on his company.

"If General Motors or Ford or somebody else makes electric vehicles, they get to monetize their ZEV credit at 100 cents on the dollar, so if there are two ZEV credits per vehicle, General Motors would have a $5,000 cost advantage over Tesla" he said.

Back in August, Musk said the standards need to be improved.

"We do believe there should be incentives and government incentives for electric vehicles, but we believe they should be there for the good of the industry and to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport," he said according to Business Insider.