Let me just state that Elon musk has , in fact mentioned going zero on subsidies before the 200k , namely, qhen bob lutz was critizizing the subsidies and loans tesla got, he offered a competition where everybod would go to zero subsidies.

You mean the comments Lutz made in Oct 2016?

There were 325k model 3 preorders in April 2016.

Tesla has been in business since 2003. Show me a comment from 10 years ago of musk complaining about subsidies.

You know , you're right! I had my timelines mixed. I do still think that elon musk's companies get singled out quite strongly when they take advantage of the subsidies that a lot of these companies take part in, to much higher degree. I guess his companies bear so much vitriolitic commentary, it's hard to distinguish actual valid criticism from the other things.

I suppose it's a quick way to kill of the competition.

man, I have to respect the guy's PR team.