Tesla’s US Loan Foretold UAW Rift With Biden as Deadline Looms

Months after the US auto industry was nearly crushed by the Great Recession, the head of the United Auto Workers union approached then-Vice President Joe Biden with an urgent request.

A largely unknown startup called Tesla Motors was in line for a $465 million loan from the US Department of Energy to help purchase a joint General Motors-Toyota plant in Fremont, Calif. that closed in April 2010. While Biden had no role in approving the loan, manufacturing and autos were in his portfolio.

So during two meetings at Biden’s office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, then-UAW President ...