Andrew J. Hawkins

While Elon Musk is making suspiciously fascist hand gestures at Trump rallies, the value of his company’s brand is dropping. Tesla sunk 26 percent in 2024 compared to the previous year, according to an annual ranking of top brands by London-based Brand Finance. And it wouldn’t be the first time that Tesla’s aging lineup and the political antics of its chief executive have resulted in a loss of brand reputation.

Kathy Harris, clean vehicle director at NRDC, swats down one of Trump’s falsehoods about Biden’s EV incentives:

“There is no `EV mandate,’” Harris said in a statement, “but Trump’s move to repeal existing standards and federal investments would be a huge blow to the U.S. auto industry – and bad news for American drivers. Fat-cat oil executives are the only ones cracking open the champagne about this one.  

“Still, this is not the end of this story. The administration will need to follow the facts and the law in making any changes to the electric vehicle incentives or the federal vehicle standards and state waivers. Our lawyers are watching. If the administration tries to cut corners or ignore the law, they will end up in court.”

This week, the Biden administration finalized a rule that effectively bans connected vehicles from China. So naturally some of us were wondering how that would affect Waymo’s next-gen robotaxis, which are built by Zeekr in China. Now that it’s had a few days to review the rule, Waymo assures us that everything’s cool.

“Waymo filed comments in support of the rule last fall, and we appreciate the Department’s prompt rulemaking,” spokesperson Ethan Teicher told me. “We do not anticipate the final rule will impact our use of the Zeekr platform.”