Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Thursday he doesn't know why Elon Musk's Tesla, by far the biggest name in electric vehicles, won't appear at the White House when President Joe Biden takes new steps in support of clean cars and trucks.
"I'm not sure," Buttigieg said when asked on CNBC's "Squawk Box" why Tesla was snubbed from the event, where Biden is expected to sign an executive order setting a national goal for half of all new cars and trucks to be electric or zero-emission by 2030.
Other U.S. auto giants Ford and GM, as well as European carmaker Stellantis and the United Auto Workers union, are slated to stand alongside Biden at the 3 p.m. ET event.
But Tesla never heard from the White House about it, according to Musk himself, who tweeted overnight, "Yeah, seems odd that Tesla wasn't invited."
Asked about that tweet, Buttigieg said he had not seen it.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
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