The truth about the Trump administration killing a $400 million Cybertruck deal
There’s plenty of confusion with Trump's latest Tesla deal, so let us clarify the chaos.
The Trump administration is spiking a plan to purchase $400 million in EVs in September, which many people assumed would be for armored Cybertrucks.
This news comes after a document detailing federal contracts for fiscal year 2025 was made public. After this document was discovered, the State Department said it had no plans to fulfill any contract to purchase EVs from Tesla, even though the document listed Tesla by name.
Related: New Model Y variants are coming later this year, Tesla exec says
Was the government buying Cybertrucks?
If you believe government officials, the State Department was never pursuing Cybertrucks.
The $400 million plan was made during the Biden administration in order to “explore interest from private companies to produce armored electric vehicles,” a State Department official said late last week.
In broad strokes, government contracts require a rigorous vetting process. First, companies express interest in being considered for the contract. Then, the government creates an “official solicitation” for each company it would like to work with on the project. From there, companies present plans to the government, and the government selects a plan it feels fits the project’s scope.
According to the State Department, Tesla was the only company that expressed interest in this process.
Related: Is Tesla's EV reign over?
The reality of Tesla’s alleged government deal
The document publicly listed Tesla as the manufacturer selected, with one row noting “Armored Tesla (Production Units)” and a valuation for the deal between $100 million and $500 million. On February 12, the document was quietly edited to remove all mention of Tesla.
Elon Musk claimed on X that he was not aware of the deal, saying, “I’m pretty sure Tesla isn’t getting $400M. No one mentioned it to me, at least.” The State Department confirmed that specifying “Tesla” on the spreadsheet was an error and suggested Tesla was listed because it was the only automaker to show interest in the armored vehicle contract. Tesla
Speaking to Politifact, a State Department representative confirmed that Tesla was never selected for a government contract to deliver armored vehicles. The representative reminded everyone that former president Joe Biden signed an executive order in 2021 encouraging government agencies to purchase EVs whenever possible and that the former administration pursued an armored vehicle purchase plan.
Tesla isn’t the only automaker named on the sheet. BMW is (or was) also slated to deliver armored X5 and X7 SUVs to the government in a deal worth $20 million to $50 million. The government also planned or plans to purchase an “Armored Sedan” and “Armored EV (Not Sedan),” but no manufacturer is listed.
Related: Study confirms Tesla drivers really are the absolute worst
Final thoughts
We can only “armchair quarterback” things at this point. Still, the point of contention here is that the spreadsheet only shows the government was planning to buy, or at least interested in, “Armored Tesla” vehicles. We don’t know if it specified truck-like vehicles, but given that there are more specific callouts for EVs elsewhere, it seems like a reasonable assumption.
Furthermore, Tesla was the only company that showed any interest in this particular contract and, as such, was noted on the document as a placeholder of sorts. We suspect the same is true for BMW. Tesla
We should also accept that many were outraged upon hearing about this deal because of Elon's current tampering with government affairs, particularly government spending. This struck us all as some handshake deal. The Cybertruck is also not as great a truck as it was supposed to be and has failed to live up to its hype. It doesn't make sense for it to be a State Department vehicle.
Bad deals for bad vehicles will always cause outrage, and this one just surfaced at a particularly sensitive time in the United States. Luckily, the US government buying Cybertrucks doesn't seem to be a reality.
We’ll take an armored X7, though. That would be incredible.
Love reading Autoblog? Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get exclusive articles, insider insights, and the latest updates delivered right to your inbox. Click here to sign up now!
Related: A Cybertruck on Autopilot slammed into a light pole, and it went viral
