Thursday evening, Musk tweeted out "inflation might be trending down," adding in a subsequent tweet "More Tesla commodity prices are trending down than up."
There is evidence he is right. A basket of metals that go into electric vehicle batteries including lithium and nickel is down about 16% from an April peak. Those metal prices are still up about 43% year-to-date.
Steel and aluminum are other key materials for all auto makers. Benchmark steel prices started the year at more than $1,400 a ton and hit more than $1,500 a ton in April. Now prices have fallen to less than $900 a ton. Aluminum prices have followed the same pattern and are off about 13% year to date and about 36% from their March peak.