The United States government has denied that it planned to buy electric armoured vehicles from Tesla, amid conflict of interest concerns as Tesla CEO Elon Musk demands major layoffs of federal employees.
A State Department procurement forecast, last revised in December, said the department would buy US$400 million in vehicles from Tesla over five years. The document was edited to remove references to Tesla on Wednesday, after reports first emerged.
“I’m pretty sure Tesla isn’t getting $400 million. No one mentioned it to me, at least,” Elon Musk said on X. Musk is both the CEO of Tesla and the head of the Donald Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an initiative aiming to dismantle government agencies and lay off large numbers of employees.
“No government contract has been awarded to Tesla or any other vehicle manufacturer to produce armored electric vehicles for the Department of State,” said a State Department official.
According to the State Department, the previous administration had explored interest from companies willing to produced armoured vehicles, with Tesla being the only company to reply. The department said it had no plans to fulfill the contract at this stage.
Tesla and SpaceX, another Musk company, have been given at least US$15.4 billion in government contracts over the past decade, as of October.
Several of Musk’s companies are also under federal investigation. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating Tesla’s self-driving capabilities after a series of accidents, and SpaceX sued the National Labor Relations Board last year for dismissing workers who said Musk had made sexist comments.
California Senator Adam Schiff, a Democrat, wrote to Trump’s chief of staff last week to request that Musk fully disclose any conflicts of interest. “Mr. Musk’s compliance with federal conflicts of interest and other related obligations remains unknown to Congress and the public,” said Schiff.
Musk’s DOGE has targeted a wide variety of government agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Education, and the United States Agency for International Development. Around 4% of all federal government workers have accepted a DOGE buyout or been fired since Trump took office last month.
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