Image credit: Tesla
White House aides John Podesta and Mitch Landrieu met with Elon Musk and other Tesla officials on January 27, to help progress on a mass clean energy revolution, according to two people familiar with the subjects of the meeting, reports the Washington Post.
Podesta and Landrieu’s positions are geared toward helping to implement some of the Biden administration’s clean energy targets previously approved by Congress. The two met with Musk and Tesla employees in Washington D.C., and the automaker’s officials were open to potentially working with the administration.
Tesla made no firm commitments, according to the sources, but the discussions centered around the automaker opening its Supercharger network to other electric vehicles (EVs) — which it has already done in select countries around the world, primarily across Europe.
Range and charging infrastructure play major roles in consumer decisions as to whether or not they should buy electric, according to the think tank the Center for American Progress’s senior vice president Trevor Higgins.
“The new federal programs for charging infrastructure will drive major investments that can get the job done, whether or not Tesla decides to help by opening up its own network,” Higgins said. “But the sooner we complete a nationwide charging network, the better.”
Last year, a White House memo suggested that Tesla could give non-Tesla EVs access to the Supercharger network in the U.S. by the end of 2022, though it hasn’t happened yet.
Reports also suggested that Tesla was seeking public funding help from the U.S. government to help open its charging network.
Tesla Launches Supercharger Voting Online for Proposed Locations https://t.co/O2hhVqkKPS
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) October 20, 2022
