Tesla Motors To Pay Off Government Loan 5 Years Early 243
fredan sends word of a post at the Tesla Motors blog detailing how the company will be paying off its $465 million government loan 5 years early. Quoting:
"This is a significant announcement both for Tesla and for the DOE. It is a marker of the successful launch of the Model S and the incredible market reaction to this award-winning car. And it is a tribute to the success of the DOE's Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program (ATVM), a program which was chartered by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush, to accelerate the market for a broad range of promising automotive efficiency technologies — electric vehicles (EVs) principal among them. ... Following more than a year of thorough due diligence by commercial auditors, automotive consultants and lawyers, on January 20, 2010, Tesla became the recipient of one of three initial DOE loans announced by Secretary Chu, along with Ford and Nissan – good company for a start-up automaker. Tesla’s loan of $465 million was to be paid back over ten years following the start of production of the Model S. Months later in a separate announcement, an ATVM loan was announced for Fisker. It is worth noting that in comparison with these three other recipients, Tesla had the smallest loan. Ford’s loan was for $5.9 billion, Nissan’s was for $1.4 billion, and Fisker’s was for $529 million. ... We expect to generate sufficient cash and profitability in our business over the next five years that it gives us confidence to proceed with this early repayment of the loan. Moreover, it is also consistent with Tesla’s mantra of speed that we would, as Elon announced last week, accelerate the repayment of our loan, a full five years earlier than required under the original loan terms, making our last payment in 2017."
Comment removed (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Jackpot? (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, seeing as they're the only real competitor in the electric marketplace, they can price as a monopoly would until their success drives competitors into the same market. That's one of those things in supply and demand that quietly gets glossed over in econ 101 but is really important.
Re:Bad news for Elon haters (Score:0, Insightful)
I don't have any feelings for Elon, but "company claims it will do splendid thing in future" is barely news, and certainly not worthy of praise. Until it's done.
Re:Headline is a lie (Score:2, Insightful)
The headline doesn't claim they did. So how is it a "lie"?
It isn't, of course. So either you're lying, or you are grossly deficient in reading comprehension. Which is it? Those are your only possible choices, and any other response (including nothing) is an irretractable confession that it's "both".
Re:Headline is a lie (Score:5, Insightful)
What? The headline is not a lie. It says quite clearly what the future intent is: "Tesla Motors To Pay Off Government Loan 5 Years Early"
Not:
"Tesla Motors Pays Off Government Loan 5 Years Early"
or even:
"Tesla Motors Paid Off Government Loan 5 Years Early"
Re:Jackpot? (Score:5, Insightful)
If I win the Powerball Saturday, I may buy one. If I can afford it...
Let's be realistic, Tesla has never released an economy car for good reasons so the same comments could be made of any higher end car. Tesla has focused on range and top end performance. They can't win this argument because if they release an economy car it will still be fairly pricey and people will complain about range and performance. It's an early adopter company and we will all benefit in the end as costs drop. They want to make money and at this point Elon Musk needs to make money because he invested most of his cash in these high end risky ventures so they would make an economy car if they could. Most of the talk I hear is it's less convenient so it should be cheaper. That's unlikely to ever happen and it ignores the other advantages. You might as well say I won't buy a gasoline car unless I can refuel it at home and gas cost less than a $1 a gallon, just to be fair. Most electric car owners love the fact they can refuel at home and electricity is cheaper not because it's a better fuel source but internal combustion engines are really inefficient when they don't run at a constant speed. It's why hybrids running an undersized gas or diesel engine to charge batteries has been my favorite. The truth is all the Tesla cars have been on par or better with the performance you'd expect for the price range. That is impressive. If you are holding out for a 15K Model S then you might as well hold out for a 15K Mercedes Sedan!
Re:Bad news for Elon haters (Score:5, Insightful)
Oil companies aren't getting loans--they're getting huge piles of cash for free. If those who believe that Government has no right to pick a company to loan money to, they should start with the loans that don't get paid back.
Re:Bad news for Elon haters (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sorry, AC, what fuzzy logic world are you living in? It is done already. The cars are being produced, sold and used...they are making money and will continue to do so. It's done.
Re:Jackpot? (Score:4, Insightful)
It isn't actually that expensive. Fairly comparable to a similarly equipped BMW or Lexus. Thing is you save money on fuel and even get it for free some times, so over the car's lifetime it is cheaper.
Re:Jackpot? (Score:5, Insightful)
From my understanding, this was the business plan all along. Let's build really expensive bad ass sports cars that are all electric. Once they made enough money on those, they could start adapting the technology to be cheaper and cheaper. All the while still selling an expensive bad ass sports car for the same price.
Its seems the Model S is part two of this plan.
Seemed genius to me.
Re:Gee, (Score:4, Insightful)
As much as I like bashing the gov't, at 36-40% marginal income tax bracket is a long, long, LONG way from "take all my money".
Get a grip.
Re:Bad news for Elon haters (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh please spare us the tears. The government has around 2,110,221 Civil Servants. They earn an average salary of $76,358. That comes out to $161,132,255,118 a year. That is only 4.55% of the Federal budget. WOW, those government employees sure are hogging the spending all right. I'm pretty sure that excedes the efficiencies achieved in most private companies. Is there room for improvement, always, just like everyewhere else.
I won't even touch the complaints about the horrible injustice of venture capitalists having to pay taxes, or government helping to prop up the free market with subsidies.