I think Elon is playing the long game and there are some other side benefits. Is he frustrated with California? For sure. He’s also close to SpaceX operations in Texas where he’ll be spending a lot of time, but the long con I think he is playing is this:
Conservatives don’t like California. Electric cars are a “liberal” thing. Except when a guy like Elon says government bad, California bad, taxes bad, I’m moving to Texas to hang out with the cool kids and then all of a sudden he’s made it acceptable culturally for conservatives to own electric cars because hey he’s a Texas guy now. Pair that with his maverick reputation and now he’s yet again accelerating EV adoption by reducing cultural barriers. It’ll be telling if Texas reverses their anti-market laws preventing Tesla from being able to sell cars in Texas. That’s the first sign.
Elon doesn’t need to win over liberals - they’re on the EV train already. But he does have to make friends with and win over conservatives.
Does he have this master plan? Doubt it. But it’ll work out this way anyway IMO.
I have a suspicion that many conservative people will take to electric vehicles easier than many think. The f150 lightning I'm sure will be mocked mercilessly, but when people actually get a sense for that acceleration, the convenience, and overall experience, they'll switch.
No, the government deciding what kind of car you are allowed to drive is a liberal thing.
If there are externalities, then tax them, get the prices right, and let people decide for themselves based on those prices. As my grandmother said about speeding tickets, drive as you can afford.
But letting people decide for themselves is not a liberal thing. Hopefully still kind of a Texas thing though.
This isn't a question of liberal or conservative principles, if you talk about, for example, abortion, then it's the conservatives who think the government should decide what you're allowed to do with your body.
And a conservative would say "no because there's a victim involved" and they'd be right, that's what this is about: is the impacts of non-ev cars on the people around us something that we should care about, take seriously, and regulate - if conservatives think it is then they will want more rigid laws as they do for other serious infractions.
So I agree - it’s just energy and shouldn’t really be a liberal vs conservative thing but, we’ll, I doubt liberals are parking trucks in Supercharger spots or trying to drive into our lane when we are passing them like this morning… could be wrong I guess.
Conservatives don’t like California. Electric cars are a “liberal” thing. Except when a guy like Elon says government bad, California bad, taxes bad, I’m moving to Texas to hang out with the cool kids and then all of a sudden he’s made it acceptable culturally for conservatives to own electric cars because hey he’s a Texas guy now. Pair that with his maverick reputation and now he’s yet again accelerating EV adoption by reducing cultural barriers. It’ll be telling if Texas reverses their anti-market laws preventing Tesla from being able to sell cars in Texas. That’s the first sign.
Elon doesn’t need to win over liberals - they’re on the EV train already. But he does have to make friends with and win over conservatives.
Does he have this master plan? Doubt it. But it’ll work out this way anyway IMO.