2w ago

A new document undercuts Trump administration's denials about $400 million Tesla deal

laist.com A new document undercuts Trump administration's denials about $400 million Tesla deal

The State Department claimed a plan to buy thousands of armored Teslas was left over from the Biden administration. A document obtained by NPR shows the Biden plan was far smaller.

Summary

A leaked State Department document revealed plans for a $400 million contract potentially favoring Tesla, despite earlier denials.

The document indicated an aggressive bid for armored electric vehicles linked to Trump-era revisions, while Biden’s administration had only budgeted $483,000 for a related study.

Experts questioned the feasibility of using Tesla’s Cybertruck due to technical and safety issues, with Musk and the White House downplaying the deal.

Critics and security professionals expressed skepticism about replacing traditional armored vehicles with modified EVs.

33 comments

Idk, putting fascists in armored EVs that are known for catching fire or getting bricked could be a good thing.
- As a Canadian please Trump gut your military just like how Russia did.
  
  By smashing it against our neighbor?

Did somebody say conflict of interest, because that's exactly what it sounds like.
- No way, Elon said he could identify any conflicts of interest and recuse himself. He wouldn't have lied about what an honest guy he is!
  
  Do you really think a fascist would do that? Just go on the internet and tell lies?
  
  At least he doesn't lie about how awesome he is at playing Diablo and PoE2
- After the first four years of golfing at trump clubs and sleeping in trump hotels, all at 3x the normal price, do you think they care?
  Nobody did anything the first time, nobody will do anything now. They don't care about outraged redditors.
  
  Yep, Democrats had 4 years to lock the guy up, and they didn't, because it was more important to look bipartisan and pick a Republican AG.

https://www.carscoops.com/2025/02/trump-to-cut-off-all-8000-ev-charging-ports-at-federal-buildings/
Trump To Cut Off All 8,000 EV Charging Ports At Federal Buildings
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) under Donald Trump calls them not mission critical.
Good luck charging them all then, I guess.
If these guys' idiocy wasn't so dangerous, it would be funny.
- They'll build a new billion dollar facility to charge the armored Teslas and call it a great achievement.
  
  Detained immigrants running on giant hamster wheels to generate the power.

Would these be used for military purposes, or for VIP transportation?
Either way I don’t think any current EV platform is suitable, but the Rivian R1S or delivery van might be the closest.
GM actually might be in the best position. They need to electrify Suburbans anyway. They could easily adapt the Silverado platform to suburbans, or the hummer EV to more of an H1 type and then work on armoring them up. But their CEO isn’t pulling the president’s strings like Tesla’s is, so what we’ll end up with it’s a shit ton of government money spent on a product no one will actually want to use.
- Nah, the weight differences are huge. An armored EV vehicle would likely need to be built from the ground up.
- What about the Hummer EV? Horribly inefficient but a ridiculously large battery to drag 10,000 pounds around. Surely that could carry some armor

can you imagine people going to war in these stupid things lmao

Please do, I'll warm up the popcorn to watch this slow moving ~~train~~ car crash

33 comments