- The State Department wants to buy $400 million worth of armored Tesla vehicles.
- The department’s procurement forecast for 2025 listed a five-year contract with Elon Musk’s company.
- Musk’s companies have received billions of dollars from government contracts and subsidies.
The State Department is looking to buy $400 million worth of vehicles from Elon Musk’s EV company, Tesla.
The department’s procurement forecast for 2025 listed a five-year contract with Tesla. The order would see the department purchasing “Armored Tesla (Production Units)” from Musk’s company for $400 million.
The department’s forecast did not specify the vehicle model that will be bought. Tesla produces several EVs, including sedans like the Model 3 and Model S, and SUVs like the Model Y and Model X.
The use of the term “Armored Tesla” in the forecast could be a reference to Tesla’s Cybertruck, a stainless steel pickup truck that Musk said is bulletproof. The proposed contract has an “anticipated award date” of September 30.
The contract with Tesla is the largest budget item listed in the department’s forecast. The forecast also included orders from other automakers, including a $40 million contract for armored BMW SUVs, the X5 and X7.
Representatives for the White House, the State Department, and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
The Tesla contract would be just one of many deals Musk’s companies have done with the government — his companies have received billions of dollars from government contracts and subsidies.
Gwynne Shotwell, the president and COO of Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, said at a conference organized by Baron Capital in November that the company had $22 billion in government contracts.
At the same time, Musk is now the public face of Trump’s cost cutting efforts within government, serving as the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
According to the White House, Musk is a “special government employee” and is not compensated for his services. The classification allows Musk to maintain his sprawling business interests, which include companies like Tesla and SpaceX.
On Tuesday, Musk joined Trump at a press conference in the Oval Office, where he was asked about the potential conflicts of interest he could face from running DOGE and his companies simultaneously.
“No, because you have to look at the individual contract. First of all, I’m not the one filing the contract. It’s people at SpaceX or something will be putting for the contract,” Musk said.
“And I’d like to say if you see any contract where it was awarded to SpaceX and it wasn’t by far the best value for money for the taxpayer. Let me know, because everyone of them was,” he added.
To be sure, the department’s forecast was made under the Biden administration and was last revised on December 23, 2024, weeks before President Donald Trump took office on January 20.
Trump said at an earlier press conference on February 3 that Musk would not be allowed to deal with government matters where there could be a conflict of interest.
“If there’s a conflict, we won’t let him get near it,” Trump said.
