Elon Musk’s electric car firm Tesla lobbied UK to charge petrol drivers more

Elon Musk’s electric car firm Tesla pushed the government to make petrol car drivers “pay more” in the days after Labour won the general election.

Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, has waded into British politics openly on social media, predicting “civil war” and criticising prime minister Sir Keir Starmer.

But behind the scenes his firm was trying to persuade the new government to extend a policy that would boost his firm’s profits. The company called for the mandate to boost electric car sales to be extended to lorries, and said electric vehicle (EV) subsidies could come from charging people buying petrol and diesel cars.

“The government should ask those still choosing to purchase a new polluting vehicle, to pay more,” Tesla’s European boss, Joe Ward, wrote in a letter addressed to roads minister, Lilian Greenwood, in July.

The letter, released under a Freedom of Information request made by the EV newsletter The Fast Charge, shows that Tesla “applauded the Labour Party’s strong position [on] decarbonisation of the energy system by 2030, growth and net zero”.

The praise came just weeks before Musk lashed out online at the UK government over the summer riots. The BBC reported in September that Musk was not invited to the government’s investment summit partly because of tensions over his political interventions.

Since then the billionaire has become the indispensable right-hand man to incoming US president, Donald Trump. The surging value of his stake in Tesla since the election there has underpinned an incredible rise in Musk’s wealth. –BBC