Tesla chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja also said Wednesday that Trump’s fiscal package has “certain adverse impacts” on its energy business, most notably on residential storage because of the early expiration of consumer tax credits.
“The challenges of the storage business, therefore, remain both from the bill and from tariffs, and we’re doing our best to try and manage through this. But it will — we will see shifts in demand and profitability,” Taneja said on an earnings call.
Tesla shares fell sharply after the company’s latest results.Credit: Bloomberg
Tariffs increased costs by around $US300 million ($454 million) to the company’s automotive and energy businesses in the second quarter, Taneja added, with costs expected to increase in the coming quarters.
Musk in May left his government post, in which he oversaw the Trump’s government cost-cutting initiative to return to his companies, which have many links to the US government.
SpaceX is a key government contractor with both the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the US military. Tesla, which accounts for the bulk of Musk’s wealth, for years has benefited from a $US7500 tax credit for EV purchasers, as well as the sale of regulatory credits that rival carmakers purchase to comply with federal tailpipe emissions and fuel economy standards.
Tump’s fiscal package signed into law on July 4 undercut both of those support mechanisms. It eliminated civil penalties that automakers had been required to pay US regulators that oversee US fuel economy requirements.
During their dispute, Musk threatened to decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, a vital capsule that NASA uses to send astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station.
Musk later walked back the threat and SpaceX continues to launch Dragon vehicles.
The Trump-Musk feud became intensely personal at its peak, with the world’s wealthiest man posting (then deleting) a claim on X that Trump’s name appeared in files related to the late, disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and that the White House had covered it up.
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Those accusations have taken on a new significance as Trump has become embroiled in a controversy over his handling of the Epstein documents, which has provoked the wrath of some of his own supporters who say the president’s team has gone back on its vow for transparency.
A Republican-led House committee subpoenaed Epstein’s convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell on Wednesday to testify next month, while the Wall Street Journal reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi “informed the president at a meeting in the White House that his name was in the Epstein files” along with “many other high-profile figures.”
“This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement in response to the Journal report.
Bloomberg
