You’ll die without a solar roof says Musk, whose admin made it harder to get solar - Related to solar, a, you’ll, musk,, memo

New DOT Sec/reality TV contestant signs memo to increase US fuel costs by $23B

Former reality TV contestant Sean Duffy. Photo by Gage Skidmore.

Sean Duffy, who was just confirmed as Secretary of Transportation on the back of the transportation “expertise” he showed as a contestant on Road Rules: All Stars, a reality TV travel game show, wasted no time in promising to raise your fuel costs by at least $23 billion on his first day.

The memo, signed yesterday, promises a review of all existing fuel economy standards, which require manufacturers to make more efficient vehicles which save you money on fuel.

Specifically, the memo targets the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard (CAFE), which was just improved last year by President Biden’s DOT, saving American drivers $23 billion in fuel costs by meaning they need to buy less fuel overall. The savings could have been higher, but were softened from the original proposal due to automaker lobbying.

However, the new DOT memo says it targets all similar standards, rather than just the improvements made last year – so in fact, our headline likely underestimates how much higher fuel costs would go if the DOT follows through on this memo.

A recent analysis by Consumer Reports presents that fuel economy standards are enormously popular with Americans, and that maintaining the current standards could result in lifetime savings of $6,000 per vehicle, compared to current costs, by 2029. And that fuel economy standards implemented since 2001 have already saved $9,000 per vehicle. Now, imagine the net effect of removing all of those standards, which Duffy has directed the DOT to examine doing.

The Sierra Club responded to the decision with this statement: “These common-sense, popular fuel economy standards save drivers money at the pump and reduce dangerous pollution from vehicles. Drivers spend excessive amounts of money to fuel their cars, and it’s often a large part of household expenses. Wasting no time at all as the new Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy is selling American families out to Big Oil, burdening us with higher fuel prices and more polluting gas-guzzlers that harm our health.”.

Mr. Trump signaled he intended to raise your fuel costs during the 2024 US Presidential campaign, when he asked oil executives for $1 billion in bribes in return for killing off more efficient vehicles. Now, after he finally received more votes than his opponent for the first time (after three tries, and despite committing treason in 2021 for which there is a clear legal remedy), he’s already following through on causing the inflation he promised during the campaign.

As we’ve already seen to be the case often with Trump’s allies, the DOT memo lies about its intentions. Just like his EPA nominee, who expressed he wants to make the air cleaner by making it dirtier, Duffy, known for being a former reality TV contestant, says he wants to make fuel costs lower by making them higher. The memo attempts to argue that your car will be cheaper if it has lower fuel economy, even though it wont, because buying more fuel will mean you spend more on fuel, not less.

Unequivocally, over here in the real world, dirtier air is actually dirtier, and higher fuel costs are actually higher.

The result of this increased fuel usage also inevitably means more reliance on foreign data of energy. The more oil America uses, the more it will have to import from elsewhere. Other countries looking to exercise power over the US could certainly choose to raise prices as they recognize that the US has just become more reliant on them.

And, as we know from the most basic understanding of economics, adding more demand means prices will go up, not down. Reducing demand for a product in fact forces prices down, and EVs are already displacing oil demand which depresses oil prices.

Meanwhile, Biden’s higher fuel economy standards would mean that automakers need to provide a higher mix of EVs, which inherently get all of their energy to run not just domestically, but regionally as well. Most electricity generation happens regionally or locally based on what resources are available in your area, so when you charge a car, you’re typically supporting jobs at your local power plant, rather than in some overseas oil country.

Biden’s standards would have stood to benefit US-based EV makers, the most prominent of which is Tesla. However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave hundreds of millions of dollars to Mr. Trump, despite it being very clear during the campaign that he intends to harm EVs, which his DOT is now following through on.

Musk has also thrown his support behind policies that will harm Tesla’s business (and Tesla recognizes this to be the case overseas), and thus its shareholders’ pocketbooks (though the shareholders are also doing that on their own, by pledging an illegal $55B payday to a bad CEO).

Some claimed that the result of this support would go towards ending NHTSA investigations into Tesla’s FSD technology, which the agency has heretofore taken a rather light touch on, and which are primarily focused on ensuring that the technology be implemented safely, which is something that everyone, including Tesla investors, should favor. But Duffy himself mentioned that he would not intervene in those investigations.

Also, whiplash changes in regulatory regimes are typically seen as bad for business. Above all, businesses desire regulatory certainty so they can plan products into the future, and there are few businesses with longer planning timelines than automakers.

This is why automakers want the EPA to retain Biden’s emissions rules, because they’re already planning new models for the EV transition. They went through this once before, in the chaos of 2017-2021, where they .

Further, if American manufacturing turns away from the EV transition, or continues to make tepid movement towards it, this will only hand more of a manufacturing lead to China, meaning more decline of American manufacturing (compared to the huge manufacturing boom seen under President Biden).

The new DOT memo is just one of many inflationary steps that Mr. Trump has indicated his interest in. He’s also thrown around tariffs and tariff threats willy-nilly, which have the effect of increasing costs, harming growth and reducing innovation. (This is also the case with President Biden’s tariffs on Chinese EVs, and you can read more about why they’re the wrong answer here).

Finally, the most essential problem with this memo is that it will increase emissions, which harms your health and increases climate change. Much like the other trends we’ve seen here, this administration doesn’t know much about the basics of climate science, which is already costing America $150 billion a year in increased infrastructure costs related to damage from natural disasters. Just yesterday, a new study came out showing how climate change created conditions that made the LA wildfires, which will be the costliest in US history by far at $20B, more likely.

And that’s not even counting health costs, which will be even higher. The aggregate of these damages could cost each American born today $500,000 over their lifetime.

But all of these harms will happen to real people. This isn’t reality television, where the intent is to make up drama for views. This is actual harm that’s actually going to be done to Americans, who are having a rough time as the global economy continues to grapple with the long-term disruptions resulting from a pandemic that was exacerbated by the same reality TV host, and of course the ever-present worsening climate change.

And so, Mr. Trump is doing his best to follow through on his campaign promises – which, in so many ways, will only make your life costlier, more unhealthy, less stable, and less secure from foreign influence. This is what 49% of America voted for.

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You’ll die without a solar roof says Musk, whose admin made it harder to get solar

Tesla CEO Elon Musk expressed that “your family’s life might depend on” having solar, despite that he’s part of a US government administration that has already made it harder to get solar, and seems poised to try to make it even harder.

Tesla hosted its Q4 and full year 2024 earnings call today, missing expectations on revenue and earnings. The firm had its first down sales year since 2011, despite a rising EV market. The market initially responded poorly to the numbers, but recovered as Tesla guided a return to growth.

As part of the call, an investor asked if Tesla had given up on ramping its solar roof. The product was originally unveiled way back in 2016, and hasn’t particularly lived up to the hyped expectations of the time (especially due to some, uh, hiccups along the way).

Tesla’s answer highlighted that the roof remains a core part of its residential product portfolio, along with Powerwall, and that it draws a lot of customer interest despite it being a “premium” product (in contrast to original promises that it would cost less than a regular roof). But Tesla isn’t installing the roof itself, it says it would rather produce units to send to the roofing industry.

Then, CEO Elon Musk went into a soliloquy about the benefits of having home solar, which are true if perhaps a little overstated:

I think it looks really cool, and your house generates electricity. And if you combine it with the Tesla Powerwall battery, then you can be self sufficient, so that even if the grid turns off – even if the grid turns off for several days – your house still works. And your roof looks awesome. So it’s like, I recommend anyone who can afford it, get Tesla’s solar roof and Powerwall, your family’s life might depend on it. And just in terms of convenience, your kids are not gonna yell at you cause their computers don’t work and their power went out and they cant charge their phone. Actually happens. You literally cant even call anyone cause your phone’s out of juice.

Despite the answer being a bit rambly, there’s an crucial portion in there, when Musk says “your family’s life might depend on it.”.

This is perhaps a little alarmist, but there is a point to be made in there. Having ready access to energy can be helpful in a bad situation, like for example during increasing natural disasters which Musk himself seems to deny are happening.

So, while Musk is wrong about climate change, he’s right that solar and batteries can increase resiliency of a home – which could, indeed, be lifesaving for that home’s residents in certain circumstances. But it’s still hyperbolic, and self-serving, to leverage these fears in order to sell a “premium” product – one which costs in the multiple tens of thousands of dollars – to fearful family members.

But then we must consider the larger context in which these words were noted.

The White House’s occupant opposes solar.

Unfortunately for the US, and for Elon Musk’s businesses selling renewable energy products, that three-time candidate finally managed to get more votes than his opponent (while still failing to attain a majority, and despite committing treason in 2021, for which there is a clear legal remedy). And after campaigning against solar, he’s already started attempts to marginalize it as an energy source in his first week squatting in the Oval Office.

On his first day occupying the seat on which traitors do not belong, he signed a memo stating that the US should focus on all forms of energy except wind and solar, the latter of which the corporation that virtually all of Musk’s wealth comes from sells.

Mr. Trump has also attempted to freeze disbursement of funds related to the Inflation Reduction Act, some of which go to solar projects. The IRA reduces energy costs for Americans and was responsible for a massive boost in American manufacturing, both things which Mr. Trump opposes.

We’re not sure what effect these directives will have, given their questionable legality and the fact that Congress is responsible for government budgets, not former reality TV hosts. But then again, it should be expected that a convicted felon would break the law again, especially if expressed felon reveals no remorse for their illegal actions.

And Mr. Trump has ignorantly promised – inasmuch as the promises of a compulsive liar ever matter – to continue to attack this cheap, clean energy source in his quest to make life worse for Americans. Many estimate there is more nonsense to come, and given past experience with the ignoramus in question, that seems like a good bet.

But we’re talking about Elon Musk here, what does he have to do with all of this?

Elon Musk’s involvement in anti-solar actions.

Elon Musk spent much of last year campaigning for Mr. Trump, despite that he made it openly clear that he wants to harm solar, the fastest-growing energy source in the US, which is cheaper and cleaner than fossil fuels. That candidate instead favors dirty, costly fossil fuel energy.

As a thank you for Musk’s massive bribes to Mr. Trump’s campaign, he has been appointed to the Department of Government Efficiency. This is not an actual department, but an advisory panel with no official authority.

It was created to be helmed by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, two of the supposedly most intelligent and capable republican operatives, who nevertheless were both tasked to do a job that would normally accomplished by one person (Ramaswamy has since quit or been forced out, before the job even started). The panel has a redundant mission to the already-existing Government Accountability Office – making it a redundant office to reduce redundancy (no, this is not a Monty Python sketch, this is apparently real life).

So, Musk is an “official” part of this administration which is making these anti-solar moves.

It’s a change from Musk’s previous statements about solar power. Even as in the recent past as 2022, Musk has decried anti-solar moves, and yet he’s now thrown large chunks of his personal wealth and effort into a group committing several of them.

While Musk and his advisory panel haven’t necessarily been directly associated with these anti-solar actions, the idea of freezing government funds is related to the supposed purview of his so-called department, so it would be reasonable to think that he might have some input into this.

Further, Musk has shown in the past that when an administration does something he objects to, he’s willing to leave an advisory position in protest. He did this in 2017 when Mr. Trump signaled that he wanted to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement, an action which Musk noted was “not good for America or the world” and quit an advisory board that he had been on (Trump did the same thing again last week, and Musk didn’t resign his position this time, signaling his newfound spinelessness).

So – the fact that Musk has not pulled out of the administration despite these anti-solar moves, combined with the fact that he has shown disapproval through resignations before, implies that he at least tacitly accepts these moves to make it harder for you to install solar.

So… Elon Musk says you’ll die without solar, but wants to make it harder for you to get it?

And now we get to the point of this all: if Elon Musk thinks that your family is in mortal peril if it doesn’t install solar panels, but he also seems okay with government making it harder to install solar panels, does that mean he wants you to die too?

Worth a thought, especially for those apparently few investors who are still onboard for Tesla’s mission, rather than just holding onto base hopes that the corporation might benefit from some unspecified corruption.

Although, given the policies we’ve seen, which will directly harm Tesla’s business, maybe even that latter group might reconsider how the corruption is working out for them.

If you’d like to install home solar from a organization that *isn’t* working actively to harm solar adoption in the US, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers.

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Here's What Happened To That Nissan-Honda Merger

For decades, Nissan and Honda have competed with one another in just about every way possible, except for pickup trucks and motorcycles. That's why the world was shocked last year when the rivals introduced a $60 billion plan to merge into one business in what was seen as the biggest move toward auto industry consolidation yet. After all, it's a volatile time in the car business; the race for batteries and software has every business on edge, and global trade tensions make the situation even more unpredictable.

But a lot can change in just a few months. Now, reports are coming out of Japan that the Nissan-Honda merger is off the table.

We'll dig into what we know and why that's the case in this edition of Critical Materials, our morning roundup of industry and technology news. Plus, now-shuttered robotaxi business Cruise's reintegration with General Motors will come at a big cost, and a look at how tariffs could slow China's economy even more. Let's dig in.

30%: Nissan-Honda May Be Dead Before It Started.

Now that that's out of the way, here's what we know. Reports are coming out of Asia this morning that at Nissan's behest, interestingly enough, merger talks with Honda will be suspended. The two companies have been "unable to reach a consensus on the terms of the deal," Nikkei Asia reports.

In part, this seems to stem from the fact that this was no "merger of equals," as the ill-fated Daimler-Chrysler tie-up was called 20 years ago. This was very much Honda—a profitable, strong-selling global automaker with a promising approach to future technology—riding to the rescue of Nissan, which has been hemorrhaging cash and in the recent past claimed it had a runway of 12 to 14 months before bankruptcy reorganization could be a thing.

Many industry observers believed the merger talks were motivated by the Japanese government, which obviously doesn't want to see one of its biggest companies (and a major global employer) go under or get snatched up by a foreign firm. And yet, Nissan somehow isn't okay with being the junior partner in this arrangement. Per Nikkei Asia:

Honda proposed that Nissan become its subsidiary, which the latter rejected. Honda and Nissan had planned to announce the outcome of their initial talks by mid-February. It is undecided whether there is a possibility of restarting the talks or whether only the collaboration on electric vehicles will continue. Honda had set the end of January as the deadline for Nissan to present a plan for "turnaround actions" to improve its business performance, which the agreement stated as "the premise" of the business integration. Despite its announcement in November to cut 9,000 jobs globally, Nissan has struggled to finalize its plan due to strong resistance to staff cuts at factories in various locations. Honda proposed that Nissan could become a subsidiary as a way to speed up restructuring, but Nissan -- which sought a near-equal role in the merger -- grew increasingly confrontational with Honda. Mounting differences between the two companies made both sides conclude that it would be difficult to continue integration talks.

There are a few things to unpack here. For one, given that Nissan's dire straits are hardly a secret, I don't know what board members and shareholders expected here. This deal was largely understood to be a rescue operation of sorts by Honda. Unfortunate as these things are, job cuts and factory downsizing always seemed to be in order.

And then there's the fact that from a product standpoint, the merger itself never made much sense.

In theory, Honda and Nissan would be able to share capital and R&D resources to make the electric, software-powered cars of the future at a time when China's automakers have a very significant lead. But in reality, the two companies had a ton of overlapping products, few potential factory synergies and it's unclear what tech expertise Nissan was even bringing to the trouble.

Even Honda's own CEO struggled to explain why the deal made sense for his firm.

But that was all in 2024, which feels like 50 years ago instead of just six weeks. Now, President Donald Trump's tariff threats may have thrown a huge wrench into these plans. Honda has a parts and manufacturing presence in Mexico (and Canada) but Nissan is very big south of the border. Any tariff turmoil would've been especially impactful to that enterprise.

The tie-up talks have coincided with disruption posed by potential tariffs from [website] President Donald Trump. Tariffs against Mexico would be more painful for Nissan than for Honda or Toyota, analysts say. "Investors may get concerned about Nissan's future (and) turnaround," noted Morningstar analyst Vincent Sun, adding: "Nissan also has a larger risk exposure to [website] tariffs than Honda and Toyota."

So it seems that issues over control were the main factor in this reported break-up, but had talks continued to develop, tariffs would've likely made shareholders even more nervous.

It's critical to note that this news does not come from official statements from either corporation, and it's certainly possible that talks could resume. But for now, perhaps these two are going their own ways—which begs the question, who's going to ride to Nissan's rescue now?

I'm not ruling out a Chinese automaker, either. That would allow an instant foothold into the [website] market, if conditions allowed it. But we'll see.

60%: Cruise Staff Cut In Half Before They Join GM.

GM had a great year on the EV front, but it ended 2024 on two down-notes: a big loss from restructuring its China business, and ending its dedicated robotaxi service, Cruise. GM will instead pivot to focusing on autonomy and automated driving assistance for consumers, like growing its Super Cruise hands-free driving user base.

GM officials mentioned last year that the plan was to fold all of these self-driving expert staffers at Cruise back into the parent business. But Bloomberg reported yesterday that this move will come with some big layoffs as well:

General Motors Co. is cutting almost half of the workforce in the Cruise driverless car unit, , part of a previously showcased plan to halt robotaxi service and absorb the operations into its broader business. Several of Cruise’s leaders, including Chief Executive Officer Marc Whitten, will leave this week in the overhaul, the organization revealed Tuesday in an email to employees sent by President Craig Glidden. The total staff reductions amount to about 1,000 positions, mentioned the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters. With Cruise goes the organization’s aspiration of using robotaxi fares to help double revenue by 2030. Instead, GM will focus its cash and resources on share buybacks and its electric vehicle business, which remains a priority even as President Donald Trump threatens to end consumer tax credits for EVs. GM mentioned in recent times that its actions with Cruise would save about $500 million this year and twice as much in subsequent years.

Also very unfortunate, as some truly brilliant people work at Cruise right now. But the robotaxi wars are just starting to heat up again; we'll likely see more players drop out down the line.

After a very tense 72 hours or so on Monday, the [website] reached an agreement with Canada and Mexico to postpone stiff new 25% tariffs for at least 30 days. But planned 10% tariffs on Chinese goods are still going into effect.

Now, unlike cars made in Canada and Mexico, this won't affect [website] car prices quite as directly because so few models sold here are made in China. (Anti-China tariffs would've likely had an impact more downstream, like making parts more expensive and so on.) But there's a wider challenge here for China as a whole: its economy had been slowing down for a while, and tariffs will only turn up the heat. From CNBC:

The imminent [website] tariffs are likely to deal a significant blow to China’s already-faltering economy, reinforcing calls for more forceful stimulus measures to bolster the country’s growth. [website] President Donald Trump on Saturday followed through on a threat made after his presidential victory, imposing 10% tariffs on Chinese goods, starting Tuesday, over Beijing’s alleged failure to prevent the flow of fentanyl into the [website] The investment bank expects China’s real GDP growth to slow to [website] this year while domestic price growth remains under pressure due to weak demand, with consumer inflation expected to rise just [website] in 2025. The consumer price inflation barely grew last year, rising [website] year on year. Higher [website] tariffs could further strain domestic prices as external demand for Chinese goods weaken. While the economy hit the growth target of [website] last year, it struggled to emerge from a real estate collapse and weak consumer and business confidence, leaving exports as a key driver of growth. Even in 2023, exports contributed almost 20% of the country’s GDP, .

But that, of course, will have a big impact on the auto market. As I mentioned before (and fairly constantly here on InsideEVs), China has the lead on making software-defined EVs and plug-in hybrids. Much of that growth—though certainly not all of it—was fueled by state investment. Yet China's own domestic car sales were beginning to slow down. Car brands were closing up shop or merging with one another. And tariffs in Europe and the [website] are limiting China's ability to export cars already.

The point is, a slowdown in the Chinese economy could, in theory, give other global automakers time to catch up. I'm reminded of Japan's technological dominance in cars in the 1980s and early 1990s until the bubble burst. But it's not quite the same thing. After all, big Western players like GM and Volkswagen still sell a lot of cars in China and they need that market to be viable. And even if China sees a downturn, it still has a huge global hold on the EV and battery supply chain. That's unlikely to go anywhere.

Either way, this is a story we'll be watching carefully this year.

I'm not sure I'd rule out a Nissan-Honda merger just yet. But in case Honda's out for good, who makes a good partner to reverse Nissan's fortunes? Or is something more drastic in the cards? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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