Tesla Motors Repays $465M Government Loan 9 Years Early 446
Tesla Motors announced today it has completely repaid the $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy the company received in 2010. The funds were generated by Tesla through a recent sale of their stock, worth close to a billion dollars. The stock price had risen sharply after the company reported its first profitable quarter (and the stock still sits roughly 50% higher than before their earnings release). Today's payment of $451.8 million finished off both the loan's principal and its interest, nine years before the final payment was due. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said, 'I would like to thank the Department of Energy and the members of Congress and their staffs that worked hard to create the ATVM program, and particularly the American taxpayer from whom these funds originate. I hope we did you proud.'
Re:Nice. (Score:4, Interesting)
Governments are terrible at "picking winners
[citation needed]
DOE funds had a better rate of return than Mitt Romney's investment fund as per widely reported figures during the election.
From the Archives (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Maybe they missed the point of the loan... (Score:5, Interesting)
Tesla doesn't seem to be having much of a problem in terms of market penetration because their factory has barely been able to keep up with the people willing to simply purchase them over the internet or through convoluted sales venues that make the customers travel across several states or even from other countries and continents in order to make a purchase. Only recently has the delay from making a purchase to getting delivery even approached the logistical limits of the Tesla supply chain rather than dealing with the customer backlog and even paying other customers to "move to the front of the line" to get the delivery earlier.
Simply put, if Tesla is charging what the market can bear on their product, they are simply practicing capitalism... something I didn't think was a crime in America.
As for the government missing out on interest income, I think they are going to more than make up for that loss through corporate income taxes and taxes on the wages of the Tesla employees.... and federal excise taxes on the vehicles themselves. It might be in some weird theory a slight loss to the government, but not much. What it really did was give Tesla some short-term operating capital that allowed the company to be able to hire the employees at the old NUMMI plant at a time when they weren't selling cars.
Re:It's about time! (Score:5, Interesting)
It's also very much political. Elon Musk's and Tesla's success under this loan program means that it was a Good Idea, and the Republicans don't want ANYTHING that President Obama or the Democrats have been involved in to be considered a success. They want all these loans to fail as proof that Keynesian economics is flawed, that the very idea of the government loaning money to renewable energy ventures (rather than their own buddies, Big Oil) is doomed to failure.
The GOP is so out of their minds with insane rage that they would do anything to ensure that no progress is made under a Democratic administration, even if it means Americans have to suffer a prolonged recovery. They want the sole credit. They also want to make everyone forget that it was their own policies of deregulation that caused the economy to tank in the first place, so that their buddies on Wall Street can make even more money without being held accountable. The only kind of capitalism that these assholes want is the kind that makes THEM richer. That means pumping more oil, for one.
Re:That's pretty cool (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe make it a modular add-in that you can take in and out of the trunk. The generator is way too small to actively power the car, but it could be ran so that the heat of the motor could be used to warm the cabin (like all gas vehicles do today) when it is extremely cold. The electricity it provided would extend range much, but it would keep you out of resistive heat, which is a real waster.. It would also provide a means of emergency charging for a stranded vehicle
I'd make it propane, because in a quality tank, the stuff lasts virtually forever, and it burns really clean.
Re:It's about time! (Score:0, Interesting)
Did Tesla have to pay a penalty for early repayment? You know, like banks will do if you want to pay a mortgage off early. Or is it a different set of rules?
If they had no penalty, then did the government make any money off this loan? If not, you see why the private sector would not make this loan and Tesla went to gov't. I'm not saying this was a bad decision, but if the government is loaning out taxpayer money without adequate return on investment, the taxpayers should be pissed off as much as a bank's shareholders would be.
Re:Texas, North Carolina Fighting Tesla's Dist Mod (Score:4, Interesting)
I especially take offense with this argument:
"When manufacturers discontinue a brand -- such as Pontiac, Mercury, Oldsmobile or Saturn -- auto dealers still remain to help the customer,"
In reality, if Tesla were to go out of business, individual mechanics would open shop assuming there was a business demand. If there wasn't any demand, then it wouldn't matter if the sale originally involved a dealer or not. (Unless said former-dealer was unclear on the concept of business.)
Exactly. The dealer model hasn't exactly helped Fisker any - while all the dealers remain, they all want exorbitant amounts of money to do any work on the vehicle. And an independent group has surfaced offering support [autoblog.com] for the vehicles regardless - but of course, you still have to pay.
Now you have the result of owners having paid thousands more because of the extra middle man - and certainly the extra middle man didn't help Fisker's profitability any, either.
Re:It's about time! (Score:4, Interesting)
The return on investment in this case is (potentially) getting a new successful industry at very little cost to the tax payer.
Re:That's Slashdot... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It's about time! (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't want the government to lose money either, but investing in clean tech, with possibility of failure, seems better to me than investing in oil companies or subsidizing corn syrup.
Yes, I would rather get rid of ALL subsidies, but unfortunately I don't think that's going to happen.
Re:It's about time! (Score:3, Interesting)
Funny how the coffers of Social Security are "still bleeding" and yet they have a greater than 2 trillion surplus in T-bills. Pretty good for a pay-as-you go system. Funny how SS has been going bankrupt for the last 70+ year.