FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Tech

Even Fox News Thinks Tesla's Electric Cars Are the Future Now

Elon Musk has finally done the impossible: He got Fox News on board with electric cars.
Image: Tendenci, CC

Elon Musk has finally done the impossible: He got Fox News on board with electric cars. The conservative propaganda machine flooded Tesla with praise after the luxury electric car maker marked a pair of milestone accomplishments: It turned a profit for the first time, and it received the highest-ever score for a car from Consumer Reports. The august publication called it "the best car we've ever tested."

Fox News seemed to agree, as pointed out by Media Matters:

Advertisement

This change of attitude is important: it signals a major potential sea change in the conservative establishment, which, until now, has dismissed electric cars as liberal play-toys. Mitt Romney memorably called Tesla "a loser" in one of the presidential debates, and Fox show hosts like Neil Cavuto have made a routine show of spewing electric car hate.

But, according to conservative ideology, if something makes money it has to be good, right? So here we are: a sudden, 180-degree turn to heralding Tesla as the future of American automobiles.

It's not just Fox. Tesla's stock prices surged in the wake of the announcement. The blogs rejoiced. Slate's Farhad Manjoo, says Tesla is "genius," and "about to be huge." Even the conservative Wall Street Journal was forced to ponder: "The Tesla Model S: the best car ever?"

Part of what makes the story so appealing to conservative outlets is its 'American Made' angle—Tesla is now the first upstart American car company to turn a profit in quite some time. Unfortunately for Fox and the WSJ's editorial board, it's also causing some serious cognitive dissonance. Tesla wouldn't be here today if it weren't for a half-billion dollar loan it took from the federal government. Fox, of course, conveniently neglects to mention that fact in its coverage; it shan't want anyone to know that its new favorite car company got about the same amount of cash from the gov as Solyndra, its most-reviled solar whipping boy.

Tesla is on track to repay its Department of Energy loans ahead of schedule, and is a great argument in favor of maintaining such programs. Model S's are flying off the shelves; the government helped build an immaculately built product that everyone (ok, mostly rich people) loves.

Barring some major setback or unseemly revelation, Tesla will continue to change the way Americans think about electric cars. The company is exciting, ambitious, and its making something that everyone wants, even if only 1% of us can afford it—for now. If Tesla can convince the conservative establishment that Consumer Reports is right, that a product it has derided for years is in fact the "car Marty McFly should have brought back from the future instead of the Delorean," then it may be able to convince the American public that it's possible to ditch the gas-guzzler and plug in. As it wins over more converts, demand will grow, and prices will fall.

And that's been Tesla's plan all along: By building luxury electric cars for rich people, Tesla is in fact making them possible for all of us.