Elon Musk and Tesla, big winners with Donald Trump's victory?

Winning bet for Elon Musk! It seems that the Tesla boss has bet on the right candidate. If the election of Donald Trump for a second term does not bode well for the electric car industry, the Austin firm could succeed in doing well. What can we expect? ?

Why did Elon Musk bet on Donald Trump?

If relations between Elon Musk and Donald Trump have not always been good, the Tesla boss decided several months ago to support the Republican Party candidate in the American presidential election. In the spring, we learned that the politician was even considering giving a role of “ advisor to the White House » to the South African billionaire in exchange for his support.

Also readDonald Trump hates electric cars, but he pushed a Chinese brand to get started

Today it's done: Trump is elected 47th president of the United States. Following the results, Tesla's stock rose as much as 15%. Proof that shareholders validate Musk's choice. Either way, it's a paradoxical situation. Joe Biden, a member of the Democratic Party, has done a lot for electric cars. On the other hand, Donald Trump has always been opposed to the development of this market.

A new anti-electric car president

He said earlier this year that “ the United States can't just go electric. It would harm our economy “. According to him, “ electric cars don't go far enough, cost too much and are all made in China “. Now in power, the 78-year-old could decide to backtrack on the $7,500 bonus granted to Americans to go electric.

However, Elon Musk invested nearly $120 million to elect the Republican candidate. On paper, candidate Harris seemed more capable of moving Tesla in the right direction. So, what can Trump do for the Austin firm? There is a theory that Musk is supporting Trump to get help in his run-ins with various government institutions and agencies.

The removal of the bonus: good news for Tesla?

But that's not all. The removal of the bonus could also be good news for the company. Musk is obviously aware that such a move would hurt electric vehicle sales, but he believes Tesla is the automaker best able to survive such a cataclysm. This would make it possible to shake up most competitors and therefore gain market share.

This is a potential avenue which could explain the support of the boss of the American brand for the Republican candidate. Even if in reality the elimination of the tax credit would hinder Tesla's initial mission which is to ” allow as many people as possible to have access to electric vehicles “. This would be very bad news for the automobile industry as a whole, and for the climate.

A boost for self-driving cars

Finally, there is yet another option. On the occasion of the presentation of the results for the third quarter of 2024, Elon Musk mentioned the possibility of creating a “ federal route » to get autonomous cars approved. “ I think there should be a federal approval process for vehicles like this “, he declared in front of the company’s shareholders. Enough to change everything for the future of Tesla.

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Elon Musk could thus take advantage of his good relations with Donald Trump (or his possible future role within the government) to accelerate the marketing of Cybercab and Robovan. This is a credible possibility, especially since autonomous driving is now the number 1 subject within the company. Without forgetting that the Texan manufacturer is behind Waymo or Baidu.

If Musk succeeds in establishing a new federal path to approval for the deployment of his autonomous vehicles, there will likely no longer be a need to obtain approval from each state as there is today. But Tesla still needs to be able to develop a sufficiently efficient autonomous driving system for this to happen. And we are still far from the goal.

The company claims that this will happen by the second quarter of 2025. But be careful, it has become too risky to trust the manufacturer's promises on this subject (and many others). Either way, Elon Musk probably wouldn't have invested so much energy and money into these presidential elections if he didn't have good reasons to do so. We will probably be fixed in the next few months.