Elon Musk, through the EV company he found, Tesla, is trying to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy. However, today Musk has come out in support of fossil fuel production.
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Tesla’s stated company goal is “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy”. And to achieve this goal, Tesla has been increasing electric vehicle production at a breakneck speed.
The EV maker just in 2022 has inaugurated 2 new factories on 2 continents. Tesla is also in the process of increasing production capacity at 2 of its current plans.
Musk has recently said Tesla’s Fremont Califonia plant has the capacity to increase vehicle production by another 50%. Tesla’s China Gigafactory is also in the beginning stages of building a new plant that can produce 450,000 vehicles a year.
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If this wasn’t enough, Tesla is also entering the mining and refining business with a sustainable process that the EV maker pioneered.
Add to this Tesla’s efforts in deploying solar panels and stationary battery storage, and the EV maker’s environmental bonafide are through the roof.
Having said that, Tesla CEO Elon Musk still takes a more nuanced approach when discussing non-renewable energy sources. Musk late last year came out in support of keeping nuclear power plants open “unless susceptible to extreme natural disasters.”
Musk’s support of nuclear power plants at least in part stems from their ability to decrease greenhouse gas emissions while at the same time providing stable electricity output.
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However, today Musk has also shown his support for fossil fuels in general. Musk’s statement comes amidst record-high gas prices in the US where the national average has reached $5 per gallon and in some states like California prices have surpassed $8.
Musk made his recent support of fossil fuels in response to Tesla enthusiast and investor Whole Mars Catalog who wrote on Twitter saying “the truth is we just don’t have the production capacity to transition everyone to clean energy and electric vehicles overnight. It’s going to take a long time and a lot of hard work. In the meantime, we need fossil fuels to keep the economy running.”
Musk echoed Whole Mars Catalog’s statement by simply writing “yeah”.
On its face, Musk’s statement might seem antithetical to Tesla’s mission statement, however, the Tesla CEO has also on multiple occasions stated that it will take at least 2 decades after all new vehicle sales have transitioned to fully electric to replace the worldwide car fleet to electric vehicles.
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And given this belief, it is not at all surprising Musk would support fossil fuel production since the alternative will be to significantly slow down the world economy for several decades to come.
As of now, the scope of Elon Musk’s support for fossil fuel production and how that affects his Tesla plans is not clear. However, we will be sure to keep you updated as we get further information.
Until then, make sure to visit our site torquenews.com/Tesla regularly for the latest updates.
So what do you think? Surprised to learn Elon Musk’s position on fossil fuels? Also, how long do you think it will take to transition the worldwide vehicle fleet to fully electric? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Image: Courtesy of Tesla
For more information check out: One Out Of Three Electric Cars Sold In The US Is A Tesla Model Y
Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and The evolution of the EV space on a daily basis for several years. He covers everything about Tesla from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.
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