The automaker is citing an expected slowdown in electric vehicle sales, brought on by the expiration of the $7,500 EV tax credit. GM is also temporarily 850 workers from its Ultium Cells battery cell plant in Ohio, and 750 employees at the Ultium Cells’ Tennessee plant.
GM destroyed most of the original EV1s, as documented by the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? But a few remain, mostly in museum or university collections. The Autopian recently discovered one of the original OG electric vehicles in auction in Atlanta, and before you know, CarTube creators descended, bidding up the price to over $100,000. This for a non-running relic of an EV! We’ll keep our eye out for the inevitable YouTube video.
Elon Musk’s political activities — buying Twitter, renaming it X, and letting election deniers and white supremacists back on; donating nearly $300 million to elect Donald Trump; heading DOGE — have dramatically harmed Tesla’s financial fortunes, according to a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research by Yale University economists. Musk’s polarizing behavior likely cost the company up to 1.26 million vehicle sales in the US alone, the group estimates. Meanwhile, EV sales from other automakers popped 17-22 percent, as Musk-disgusted shoppers spent their cash elsewhere.
