Elon Musk: Incentives not necessary, but helpful

Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said Monday that a Los Angeles Times article claiming his companies received government subsidies is incorrect. (Tweet This)

"The article makes it seem as though my company is getting some huge check, which is fundamentally false," he told CNBC's " Power Lunch ."

According to the article, Musk's three companies, Tesla, SolarCity (SCTY) and SpaceX, "have benefited" from a total of about $4.9 billion in government subsidies. Musk said that the article was misleading and did not accurately portray the situation.

Shares of Tesla (TSLA) were down slightly in late trading Monday.

Musk said that "none of the incentives are necessary, but they are all helpful," referencing incentive packages some of his companies received to build factories in states like Nevada. He said that the reason these incentives exist is because "voters want a particular thing to happen, and faster than it might otherwise occur."

"That is all that these incentives achieve," he added.

Musk said that the only incentives he bargained for directly were state-level incentives. These include a small launch site in Texas for SpaceX and a Tesla gigafactory in Nevada. He explained that such incentive packages have existed long before his companies received some of them.

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