{"id":80432,"date":"2025-02-12T17:37:44","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T22:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=80432"},"modified":"2025-02-12T17:37:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T22:37:44","slug":"us-state-department-has-budget-line-for-armored-teslas-worth-400-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=80432","title":{"rendered":"US State Department has budget line for ‘Armored Teslas’ worth $400 million"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\"Tesla<\/figure>\n

The US State Department\u2019s procurement forecast for the 2025 budget includes an item called \u201cArmored Teslas\u201d worth $400 million.<\/p>\n

But worry not; it was approved under the Biden Administration, so Elon Musk\u2019s DOGE will undoubtedly eliminate this waste. Right?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Elon Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are currently examining a large amount of US government spending.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear if he got to the US State Department\u2019s procurement forecast<\/a> because there are a few interesting lines that would give auditors second thoughts.<\/p>\n

The most interesting one is \u201cArmored Tesla (Production Units)\u201d, which is worth $400 million. Strangely, the item is listed under the NAICS code \u201c311999 \u2013 All Other Miscellaneous Food Manufacturing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program has a target for delivery in Q4 through the next 5 years.<\/p>\n

There are several other similar and strange budgeted items that are linked to the wrong categories:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

You have \u201cARMORED SEDAN\u201d under \u201cSoft Drink Manufacturing,\u201d \u201cARMORED BMW X5\/X7\u201d under \u201cBottled Water Manufacturing,\u201d and finally, ARMORED EV (NOT SEDAN) under \u201cIce Manufacturing.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, all these other armored vehicle-related items are budgeted at a fraction of the $400 million for Tesla vehicles ($50 million, $40 million, and $40 million, respectively).<\/p>\n

The State Department procurement forecast website mentions that the list was last updated in December \u2013 before Trump entered office.<\/p>\n

Electrek<\/em> has contacted the State Department for a comment, and we will update you if we get an answer.<\/p>\n

Tesla has claimed that its Cybertruck is \u201carmored\u201d and \u201cbulletproof\u201d, but its armored capacity is quite limited. It can likely deflect low-velocity bullets if they hit the doors, but that\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n

Other companies have been planning to modify the Cybertruck with higher levels of armor, like the partnership between Unplugged Performance and Archimedes Defense<\/a> \u2013 pictured above.<\/p>\n

Electrek\u2019s Take<\/h2>\n

I am not against armored electric vehicles. If you need armored vehicles, you might as well make them electric.<\/p>\n

However, this is certainly weird. Why does the State Department need $530 million worth of armored vehicles? And why is it listed under a bunch of unrelated categories that don\u2019t make sense?<\/p>\n

Sounds like a job for DOGE? However, Elon will need to recuse himself from that one, I guess.<\/p>\n

\n

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.<\/em> More.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US State Department\u2019s procurement forecast for the 2025 budget includes an item called \u201cArmored Teslas\u201d worth $400 million. But worry not; it was approved under the Biden Administration, so Elon Musk\u2019s DOGE will undoubtedly eliminate this waste. Right? Elon Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are currently examining a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}