California's governor just took a torch to the man he views as "the [Thomas] Edison of our time." In a new episode of "The Axios Show," Gavin Newsom calls Elon Musk "one of the great disappointments" of this era, accusing the Tesla chief of handing the electric-vehicle future to China by shifting his company's focus toward robotics. With China already controlling an estimated 70% of the global EV market, Newsom frames Musk's pivot—alongside what he describes as Trump-era rollbacks of federal EV incentives—as a self-inflicted American setback on jobs, supply chains, and national security.
Newsom brands himself as one of Tesla's "biggest proponents, supporters" who "got one of the first Teslas off the line" and argues California's rules and subsidies helped make Musk a "multibillionaire, maybe trillionaire." Inc. provides some background, explaining California's 1990 Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate stipulates that automakers have to meet a certain percentage of electric models or buy credits from companies that do. "Because Tesla launched as an EV-only manufacturer, it benefited disproportionately from the credit system."
As for Musk's pivot, EV circles back to Tesla's January announcement that it would no longer make its flagship Model S and Model X and instead convert manufacturing lines to Optimus production. It cites Musk as saying it's "probably true" people will eventually forget Tesla was ever a car manufacturer after the company launches the Optimus V3. "I really think long-term, the only vehicles that we'll make will be autonomous vehicles, with the exception of the next generation Roadster," Musk said at the time.
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