The government helped Tesla conquer electric cars. Now it's helping Detroit, and Elon Musk isn't happy.

SAN FRANCISCO - President Joe Biden held a splashy event on the White House's South Lawn last month to announce an ambitious goal: to make half of new passenger vehicle sales electric, plug-in hybrid or fuel-cell electric vehicles by 2030.

But a key player in the industry was nowhere to be seen. Elon Musk and the country's leading electric-car manufacturer, Tesla, had been left out of the festivities...