The U.S. government has not awarded Tesla a contract to produce “armored” electric cars, a State Department spokesperson said Thursday, clarifying a budget document that appeared to detail the agency’s plan to spend $400 million on vehicles from Elon Musk’s automotive giant.
The spokesperson told MSNBC that the Biden administration asked the State Department to “explore interest from private companies to produce electric vehicles.” In response to the request last year, the agency asked for information to “solicit interest.”
The department got interest from only one company at the time, and, as a “next step in that process,” an official solicitation would have been sent out to vehicle manufacturers to bid, the spokesperson said. “However,” the spokesperson added, “the solicitation is on hold and there are no current plans to issue it.”
The independent publication Drop Site News reported on the budget document Wednesday, setting off a wave of speculation and scrutiny over Musk’s entanglement with a government in which he is one of President Donald Trump’s key advisers.
The budget document cited in various news reports was a procurement forecast for 2025 — essentially a list of prospective purchases. The spreadsheet entry, labeled “Armored Tesla (Production Units)” and last modified on Dec. 13, before Trump took office, noted that the potential purchase was still in the “PLANNING” phase. It did not specify the model of car from Tesla, which does not manufacture an “armored” vehicle.
Then, hours after the articles were published, the State Department appeared to remove the word “Tesla” from the spreadsheet and uploaded a revised version to its website, though a version of the list including Tesla was still online on another State Department web page Thursday afternoon.
Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, threw cold water on the issue. “I’m pretty sure Tesla isn’t getting $400M. No one mentioned it to me, at least,” he wrote on X at 1:30 a.m. ET Thursday.
Tesla and Musk did not immediately reply to emails seeking comment on the matter Thursday.
The news reports attracted wide interest partly because of Musk’s power and influence in the Trump administration. He heads up the Department of Government Efficiency, a sweeping effort to dramatically slash government spending and shrink the federal workforce. He has accused the federal government of widespread corruption and wasteful spending.
Musk is also one of the federal government’s most significant and high-profile contractors. In recent years, his SpaceX firm has been awarded billions of dollars in contracts. He has faced growing questions about potential conflicts of interest given his simultaneous role in the Trump administration and his vast business holdings.
The budget spreadsheet listed potential allocations to other vehicle manufacturers, but the State Department spokesperson said contracts have not been “awarded to Tesla or any other vehicle manufacturer to produce armored electric vehicles for the Department of State.”
