---
title: "Elon Musk Jokingly Takes Credit for Daimler’s $10 Billion EV Investment"
description: "Elon Musk talks investments in electric vehicles on Twitter with Daimler, challenging their investment — until they explained their actual commitment."
date: "2017-09-27"
modified: "2017-09-27"
authors:
  - name: "Karla Lant"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/karla"
url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-jokingly-takes-credit-for-daimlers-10-billion-ev-investment"
categories:
  - "Elon Musk"
  - "Future Society"
  - "The Industrialists"
tags:
  - "daimler"
  - "electric vehicles"
  - "elon musk"
  - "tesla"
---

# Elon Musk Jokingly Takes Credit for Daimler’s $10 Billion EV Investment

![elon musk electric vehicles daimler tesla](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/flotte-w1120xh448-cutout.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: \<a href="https://www.daimler.com/sustainability/product/e-mobility/electric-offensive.html" target="\_blank"\>Daimler\</a\>\</em\>*

Elon Musk stirred up some friendly competition via Twitter when he responded to a [USA Today article](<https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2017/09/21/mercedes-benz-tuscaloosa-electric-vehicles-batteries/688721001/>) discussing Daimler's bet on electric vehicle (EV) technology. Musk said that the “$1 billion bet” the company was putting into taking on Tesla was not enough for “a giant” like Daimler and that it was “off by a zero.”

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/912036765287845888

Daimler didn't take issue with Musk's criticism. In fact, they pointed out that the headline of the piece was missing the point, and that they're investing that extra zero, more than $10 billion, into the next generation EV, plus another billion into batteries:

https://twitter.com/Daimler/status/912349809662496768

When a Twitter user pointed out that Musk wasn't really the force behind Daimler's $10 billion investment, and that the investment preceded the criticism, Musk responded by joking that he actually had caused the investment:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/912649053334265856

This could technically be just a joke, or, [as TechCrunch points out](<https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/26/daimler-answers-elon-musks-twitter-challenge-on-evs/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook>), a reference to Tesla's pioneering work with EVs — the reader can interpret it to their liking.

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlalant>)  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/KarlaLant>)