Earlier this year, when I was working at EV Pulse, the team and I attended X Takeover for a video shoot with Michelin. It was a well-attended and interesting event, with Tesla enthusiasts from all across the country assembled in one place, sharing their mutual love for their cars and hanging out with like-minded individuals. To be honest, there wasn’t anything different or weird about the event compared to other car shows I’ve attended in the past, apart from one thing.
Everyone talked about “the mission.”
There was a time when Elon Musk was speaking in grandiose terms about how electric cars were going to save the environment. That, plus his obsession with colonizing Mars would lead to not only a pleasant planet to live on here, but a multi-planetary species that could survive an extinction-level planetary event. In a lot of ways, it’s straight out of sci-fi.
But the fact is the Earth is warming, and electrification is one of the many ways to help reduce humanity’s impact on the environment. I’m also in the camp of eventually wanting to explore the stars and understand how that could help humanity endure for potentially millions of years into the future. While I think we should do more here on Earth before focusing our attention on space — which is actively trying to kill us all — I can see the appeal of the interplanetary messaging.
If that’s the proverbial mission, I could see why people would get behind that. But in our current time, nothing Elon Musk is doing is advancing either of those causes. He’s also not reducing deaths through “self-driving” technology or making transportation cheaper with millions of robotaxis.
Since election day where Donald Trump was re-elected, according to ElonJet on BlueSky, Elon Musk has spent $84,539 in jet fuel flying from either to or from West Palm Beach, Florida. That’s Mar-a-Lago International Airport. He’s also emitted 160 tons of CO2 in the process.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the median household income for the United States in 2023 was $80,610. In just a matter of weeks, Musk has burnt more money on jet fuel than many households make all year in this country.
For some perspective on the CO2, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, a Rolls-Royce Phantom driven 15,000 miles per year (45% highway, 55% city) emits 10.6 tons of CO2 per year. Just over 15 Phantoms could drive all year at 15,000 miles and still produce less CO2 than what Musk has wasted flying back and forth to visit President-elect Trump.
A new Toyota Camry produces 2.9 tons of CO2 per year driven the same type of 15,000 miles. Musk, in approximately one month, has polluted as much flying back and forth to see Trump — or in the case of the MMA fight, fly to the same location but separately — as 55 Toyota Camrys will pollute in driving for an entire year.
“But private jets are more efficient for doing business, and Musk has a lot of business needs to attend to,” I hear you possibly say.
It’s possible that I’d be receptive to that argument in normal business operations, but Musk’s trips to Florida aren’t advancing Tesla’s causes. Remember, Musk is lobbying the next president to eliminate federal tax incentives on EVs (which would hurt overall adoption of EVs, which would help the environment overall), reducing regulations that help ensure a cleaner environment, and also using his time to annoy the next President of the United States. Oh, he’s going to crush his EV opponents.
So I ask you, what is “the mission?” If it’s to ensure that his oligarchy (ahem, broligarchy) continues with the new president, then sure. If it’s to help amass even more power and wealth, while busting unions, deporting people who came here illegally (like he did), and fundamentally breaking the U.S. government then sure, that’s the mission.
If “the mission” was anything else, it has long been abandoned. So I ask, what exactly is this mission people keep worshipping?
