“Procurement” is the fancy term for when the government buys things. It’s normally very dull. Lately, though, the State Department’s spending plans have caught our eye. Apparently, it plans to purchase $400 million worth of armored Tesla EVs. Or perhaps not.
The controversy hit the news on Wednesday night, with Drop Site reporting that State Department procurement documents indicated a $400 million sum earmarked for “Armored Tesla.” This was set to be awarded in Q4 2025, with the program slated to run over a five year period. The project was marked as being in the “Planning” phase.
That’s a lot of money for (presumably) a lot of armored Teslas, with the story quickly spreading to the broader news media:
Only, things got weirder late on Wednesday night when the procurement document was changed to wipe Tesla’s name from the books. So what’s going on, and what could an armored Tesla even look like?
Late Night Excel-ing
With Tesla CEO Elon Musk making waves with his political connections of late, there was some concern when the story broke regarding potential conflicts of interest. Tesla commentators soon took to Twitter to claim that date stamps appear to indicate the procurement document was altered on December 13, 2024—weeks prior to the beginning of the new presidential term.
Regardless, if you visit the State Department site now, you’ll find the time stamp has been updated to February 12, 2025 at 9:12 PM, indicating some poor bureaucrat was working late to “fix” this situation.
It's worth noting that this procurement forecast was revised in December 2024 when Biden was still President. The Tesla line item was last modified on December 13th: pic.twitter.com/8meUaBCWTS
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) February 12, 2025
It seems likely that, at some point, the State Department earmarked these funds for a Tesla-related project. Indeed, there are other entries denoting armored car purchases from other automakers, like BMW—albeit at a much lower sum of $40 million.
However, as reported by Bloomberg, the EV automaker’s name was scrubbed from the procurement document in the hours after the story broke. The project is now listed as a requirement for “Armored Electric Vehicles” with no specific automaker listed.
The Autopian has queried the Department of State over the matter, including the scrubbing of any references to Tesla. Despite the late-night spreadsheet-ing, it appears likely Tesla is intimately involved with this procurement. CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to chastise MSNBC for allegedly misrepresenting his role in the matter.
Hey @maddow, why the lie? https://t.co/gUZax7mvef
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 13, 2025
What Vehicle Could It Be?
Given all the bluster around the stainless steel Cybertruck, one might assume that this is the vehicle of interest to the State Department. It’s certainly the most military-like Tesla, and was regularly referred to as bulletproof right up until people started shooting holes into it after launch. Musk himself referred to the vehicle as an “armored personnel carrier from the future.” In reality, though, it’s closer to a regular car than an actual military vehicle — even if its outer panels can take quite a beating.
While an armor-clad Cybertruck could be on the agenda, it’s worth remembering that the State Department is not the military. Indeed, the department has specific procurement awards designated for “Military Armored Vehicle, Tank, and Tank Component Manufacturing”, and the Tesla award was not that.
To that end, the department is likely not be seeking a rugged, all-terrain vehicle like the the Cybertruck at all. Indeed, the agency is purchasing X5 and X6 SUVs from BMW. While they are all-wheel-drive, they’re not exactly what you would call military vehicles, even when up-armored.
It may be the case that the State Department is seeking armored versions of the Model S or Model X, to be used for transporting dignitaries. This would be similar to the armored car programs common at automakers like BMW and Mercedes, which see regular sedans and SUVs equipped with body armor and thick bullet-resistant glass. Modifications are usually very hard to spot visually so these vehicles don’t stand out in traffic. An armored Tesla may not look appreciably different from a regular one.
The $400 million sum earmarked for the program does suggest there’s something special at play. It could be that the State Department wants a lot of armored EVs, or it could be that it’s paying for someone to build something exotic and special. Unless the State Department answers our questions, or someone spills the beans, we can only speculate for now.
Regardless, where there’s $400 million in smoke and strange edits to an official government spreadsheet, there’s fire. Someone’s trying to buy some kind of badass armored EV, and the people want to know what it is. More when we have it.
Image credits: Tesla, Department of State, BMW
This is (was?) almost certainly going to be a competitive bid process between Tesla and GM to see who will be providing the future fleet of black consular SUVs to all of America’s embassies. I bet that it was Model X by default because GM hasn’t even announced a Yukon EV yet.
Much like AMC getting the gig for most of the 60’s and 70’s, we’ll see Tesla get rolled over by GM lobbyists in a few years once those Yukons and Suburbans are on the road.
I seriously doubt it could be for the CT. Why? Because I don’t believe those cast aluminum sub-frames could take the weight of armor. Perhaps they could beef them up somehow, but I also think that would cost way more than it’s worth. As such, I assume this money was for some other vehicle.
The payload’s 2500lbs, so they should have at least some extra room for armor there.
Indeed. Perhaps light arms bullet resistance, but I can’t see how they could add any IED protection. I like aluminum, but it can be brittle. Running around every mile at or near GVWR on it also may not be the best idea. And of course range suffers as IJR points out below. However, you make a great point.
Armored and with a range of -20 miles.
You all are being too reasonable. These are for bribes for sultans in the middle east.
Nice to at least have a straightforward article explaining what’s known and what’s not regarding this whole thing. I will be interesting to see where it goes from here.
X2.
Teslas, armored Teslas;
What kind of pigs buy armored Teslas?
Fat pigs, whiny pigs, pigs with tiny cocks;
Corrupt pigs, sissy pigs;
even pigs hiding classified docs
Love Teslas, armored Teslas,
The cars pigs love to buy.
Love it
Classified borks the meter though, I’d go with secret.
Yeah, you’re right.
Conflict of interest for the public eye for sure.
Though I will say Euro Cars instead of American alternatives seems counterintuitive to the current Tariff administration.
The X5 and X7 are made are made in South Carolinian
The Chevrolet Equinox, Chevrolet Blazer, GMC Terrain, Chevrolet Silverado, and GMC Sierra. Ford Fusion, and the Ford electric Mustang, are mostly from Mexico. Lincoln Nautilus Buick Envision, Buick GL8, Buick Verano are all Imported from China.
Honda, Toyota, Mercedes, and BMW, make SUVs in the USA.
Not an even pretending to be a complete list..
this all correct, but to the UAW roll callers, they definitely overlook the plant of origin and tend to focus just on the badge name.
Well I understand the UAW is trying to organize in Mexico, but I’m pretty sure that’s not happening in China.
UAW no longer has anyone in the administration listening to them. Both Musk and Trump prefer non-union workers
And all the Inspectors General are GONE. But I’m sure this is all on the up and up.
I figured this would be cancelled completely, I thought one of Trump’s edicts was to stop ANY federal funds going towards EV procurement.
Tesla gets an exception for some reason
How strange!
That doesn’t prove anything. It’s well after the election and Musk’s very visible involvement in the Trump campaign. It would not take a genius to read Project 2025 and realize that sucking up to the next presidential puppetmaster was a good idea, if they wanted to keep their job. All this tells me is someone in the State department has a better grasp of politics than anyone in the current Cabinet.
There is plenty of shit that Elongated Muskrat is doing to get extremely angry about… but this does not appear to be one of them. It was initially earmarked in 2024.
Them scrubbing the Tesla from the line definitely makes them look shady, but I don’t think they are in the wrong here.
My MIL is in immigration hell, and I assure you that ICE officials started acting completely different a week or so after Trump won the election. I see no reason why people in other agencies wouldn’t see which way the winds were blowing.
So, my theory here is that they put down spending for armored cars/suvs that are readily available and made in the USA, the X5/X6’s are and as far as EV’s which are right now you have Teslas, and possibly Rvians depending on availability measures. So that’s really what it is here.
The Escalade IQ, Hummer EV and Hummer SUV are made in Detroit.
And those are not produced at a significant volume
The cybertruck isn’t either. Both could use a boost from a government contract.
The contract does not specify the Cybertruck.
I’m not defending this, but I’m also not saying that it was malicious, just stating what the probable reason was.
It used to say $400 million for Armored Teslas
I was just pointing out that there are other US manufactured EVs besides the ones on your list
Is it bribery and corruption if it’s right out there in the open?
Yes, you just have to add the word “brazen” before bribery or corruption.
That light pole is coming right at us!
Ha!. Had the same thought.
Walks, talks, is duck.
Aren’t these already bullet proof?
subscription required
“what Bladerunner would have driven”
Or flown in a star war
I thought Bladerunner drove a Jeep, even though his name is Bladerunner
Wasn’t the last one a Peugeot?
It was, but it’s Stellantis so…
Potential conflict? You’re funny. The way you’ll know for sure if someone got caught with their hand in the cookie jar is if the FCC suddenly threatens MSNBC.
You have to have a signed J&A for sole source procurements (meaning a high up person needs to approve and sign the justification for sole source) otherwise there needs to be an RFP for competitive bids (FAR part 6). The government is very specific about not specifying an exact contractor to buy from. There is supposed to be fair and open competition unless there is justification specified in FAR part 6.3
I bet $500 this is for a new Cybertruck-looking-ass presidential limo.
I’d take that bet. The Cybertruck in no way matches Trump’s aesthetic. Even if it was gold plated I don’t think he’d ride in one. Maybe as a one-time stunt, but I don’t think he’d sign off on being driven around in a Cybertruck Beast.
I don’t think he’s lucid enough to even notice what he’s being stuffed into. Elon probably thinks it’d be cool, and that’s enough incentive for Mr. Budget Cuts to spend $400M of our money.
Rump might enjoy that one masshole’s gold-wrapped DePlorean. I hear it’s rather attention-getting.
Maybe they should work on water-proofing the Cybertruck first. Small-arms fire is one thing. A mob armed with water-ballons, and super-soaker though? Have this thing in the Sitting Duck Formation. Should probably keep Full Self Cruise Missile Mode. Things pop off, just pop on FSD and boom, you’re effectively your own air support!
But what about tiny hands fire? Asking for a friend.
“Self-drive, get us out of here!”
“ohhhhhh, but the sun’s in my eyes and the road markings aren’t very clear and those AK-47s are overwhelming my sensitive recording devices! Shutting down!”
/i like to imagine all Teslas are just little wimpy nerds under it all
Quick, somebody tell DOGE we just found $400 million in corrupt government waste!
Nonsense. DOGE is powered by the world’s bigly good AI, grok3.
If spending = self-dealing, APPROVED
If spending = benefits the majority or poor, NOT APPROVED
If (spending != self-dealing) return;
If this gets to fruition, I can’t possibly imagine a more appropriate vehicle to validate every 80s and 90s movie’s envisioning of a dystopian government force.
B…b…but Robocop Taurus!
I think Robocop was a prequel to the Aliens series. Wait, hear me out. Robocop is the beginning of an America ruled by corporations and their uber-wealthy CEOs. From there, it’s not a big stretch a universe ruled by big corporations like Weyland-Yutani…
Ah yes, adding an extra couple thousand lbs of weight surely won’t cause range issues.
It better be well-armored, because when the batteries run dry between the airport and hotel they’ll be a sitting duck.
I told you Dulles was too far away!
But DCA is a death trap, you know that!
Independent testing of an F-150 Lightning showed that adding 1,400lb of water/tank to the bed changed the highway range by just ~5%.
And weight doesn’t totally crush EV range at less-than-highway speeds, either, because extra energy used to accelerate it also gets partially recovered with regenerative braking.
Oh man, the vehicle shaped like a brick with already terrible range wasn’t affected much by weight? Probably because it’s main problem is aerodynamic efficiency.
Teslas are VERY aerodynamically efficient, so weight will be your biggest killer there.
Tesla may see a proportionally larger reduction in range, but the point is, like I said, it’s not going to demolish range for the reasons listed (low speeds have regen, high speeds are at relatively constant speeds).
Actually it means that the biggest risk to high-speed efficiency is changes to aero, and for low-speed *both* will be weight because aero matters less at low speeds.
In fact, we can see approximately what would happen if a Cybertruck gained 2k lb or a Model S gained 1400 lb. They’re called the Silverado EV and BMW i7. Their efficiency is worse, but far from disastrous.
An armored EV program fits well with the previous administration.
Are there people that refer to any EV as a Tesla? I know people call tissues Kleenex or copies of things a Xerox. Could that explain why someone put ‘Tesla’ instead of ‘EV’ back in 2024?
Yeah, there absolutely are. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what happened here.
It also fits with the government tossing contracts out there to see what bids they get and what those companies design for them. If it was indeed just supposed to be EV from the start and someone just typed “Tesla” to mean that, it’s definitely business as usual. There’s a good chance this is more of an exploratory project where they buy a few to see if they can use them for some limited operations and whether they can expand that usage.
The quiet edits when it was discovered make a person wonder, though. And the timing (after the election, before Musk came in and started slashing programs) sort of makes a person wonder if someone in procurement was trying to ensure that their pet program didn’t end up on the chopping block.
I dunno. There’s enough shit going on in the government that this one just doesn’t seem that big to me.
Flipping your last sentence to focus on just what’s going on in the government in the past few weeks… I have the complete opposite mindset.
I mean, there’s been so much blatantly illegal activity going on that Musk and company aren’t even trying to hide that it makes me wonder why they cared to ninja edit this one. I have to assume that it’s because there is more to the iceberg under water. Musk’s tentacles are everywhere and for each one we can see, there are seven more doing something we can’t.
That’s actually a really good point. I’m looking at this as a distraction from all the big shit instead of an indicator, but that’s not really justified. I guess that it shows that overwhelming us with all this stuff works (on me, at least). Information overload and news fatigue are real.
I dunno. Just a couple lines below there is a specific “Armored EV (Not sedan)” line. It’s possible, but it seems internally inconsistent.