Tesla Purges 2006 Climate Manifesto Promising Cheap EVs

A 2006 blog in which Tesla chief Elon Musk outlined his views on climate change and his larger vision for the electric vehicle-maker, has disappeared from the company’s page, according to a report by Forbes.

“Our long term plan is to build a wide range of models, including affordably priced family cars,” Elon Musk wrote in the post. “This is because the overarching purpose of Tesla Motors (and the reason I am funding the company) is to help expedite the move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy,” he said.

The blog was posted days after Tesla’s first ever public event, in which the company unveiled its first electric car, the Roadster, Forbes noted. The manifesto served as the company’s statement of purpose, made it a darling of the environmental community and helped Tesla raised funds in 2010 IPO, it added.

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But the post is no longer available on Tesla’s blog, nor are any other posts before 2019.

The purge comes at a time when Musk, and in-effect Tesla, have had a major change in priorities, brought on by a slowdown in EV demand and the rise of a swathe of low-cost competitors from China.

Musk – now the world’s richest man – has, this year, scrapped plans to mass produce an affordable EV and said Tesla would instead focus on robotaxis and self-driving vehicles.

The blog’s takedown also follows a change in the billionaire’s political views.

In a conversation with Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump this month, Musk dismissed any urgent threat from increasing carbon emissions and also sounded support for the oil and gas industry.

“If we were to stop using oil and gas right now, we would all be starving and the economy would collapse,” Musk said in the two-hour chat with Trump on his social media platform X.

He added that the main threat from increasing emissions was that it would become to “difficult to breathe at some point” and that people would experience “headaches and nausea”.

Musk is endorsing Trump — also a climate change denier — in the upcoming November election. One expert described their rambling X conversation as “the dumbest climate conversation of all time”.

Also read:

Musk’s Plunging Reputation Putting Australians Off Tesla – ABC

Trump Would Axe US EV Tax Credit, Open to Musk Advisor Role

Musk’s Tesla Video Touting Self-Driving ‘Was Staged’ – Reuters

Tesla Buyers Bailing Because of Musk, the ‘Troll’ – CNET

Tesla is S&P 500’s Worst Performing Stock of 2024 – Quartz

In U-Turn, Elon Musk Says US Tariffs on Chinese EVs ‘Not Good’

 

Vishakha Saxena

Vishakha Saxena is the Multimedia and Social Media Editor at Asia Financial. She has worked as a digital journalist since 2013, and is an experienced writer and multimedia producer. As a trader and investor, she is keenly interested in new economy, emerging markets and the intersections of finance and society. You can write to her at [email protected]