State Department halts plan to buy USD 400M worth of armoured vehicles from Musk's Tesla
SpaceX has secured nearly USD 20 billion in federal funds since 2008 to ferry astronauts and satellites into space.
PTI
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Elon Musk
FORT LAUDERDALE, 14 FEB
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk's Tesla
company to buy armoured electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold
by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential USD 400
million purchase.
A
State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk, who
has become President Donald Trump's billionaire adviser aiming to dismantle
agencies and downsize the federal workforce, was the only one that expressed
interest back in May 2024, when Joe Biden was president.
While
it was in its planning phases, the deal with Tesla was forecast to be the
largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was
still expected to come from taxpayers before the plans were put on hold. His
companies obtain hundreds of millions of dollars each year in contracts.
SpaceX
has secured nearly USD 20 billion in federal funds since 2008 to ferry
astronauts and satellites into space. And Tesla had already received USD 41.9
million from the US government, including payment for vehicles provided to some
US embassies.
No
government contract had been given to Tesla or any other manufacturer to
produce armored electric vehicles for the Department of State, the agency said.
The
Biden administration had tasked the State Department to gather information from
potential suppliers to buy these vehicles in September. An official request for
bids was to be released in May, according to State Department data from
December. But that solicitation is now on hold with no plans to issue it, the
State Department said.
After reports emerged about the plans to buy from Tesla, the State Department changed the data entry on its expected contracts forecast for fiscal year 2025 late Wednesday. The State Department said it should have been entered into the system as a generic “electric vehicle manufacturer," but there is at least another entry for a different purchase that continues to list a company— German car manufacturer BMW.
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