Niche electric car maker Tesla has announced that they will become the latest automaker to seek a government loan package. The company is requesting $500 million dollars from the US in order to keep their model S sedan on track and they are threatening not to open their $250 million dollar factory in San Jose, California if they are refused aid.  Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, stated that the funds are needed to produce the model S sedan which will be priced at $57,499. He said that the company simply cannot move forward with production without a major injection of capital, and added “If we don’t get any government funding, then what we need to do is wait until the capital markets recover, which could be a year or two years from now.”  The company is requesting the aid be supplied through the Department of Energy’s loan program that encourages the development of energy-efficient vehicles. This is the same program that Detroit’s big three used to get $25 billion dollars for retooling, and is now expected to serve as the funding source for the $15 billion dollar emergency loan package for the automakers.  Tesla has been in the news lately for a chaotic management and financial crisis which has crippled the company. Recently a cash shortage left Tesla with a cash balance below $9 million dollars and investors had to come to the rescue by injecting $40 million dollars into the company, a move which was supposed to put the production back on track.  If the government approves Tesla’s bid for a loan, the company could begin producing the new model S sedan by 2011 with a target output of 20,000 cars annually.

Continued

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tesla Motors held the grand opening of its Northern California dealership in Menlo Park Saturday evening. A slew of valet parkers greeted. Then, I walked down the red carpet past an orange Tesla Roadster to the large showroom. Beyond the gazpacho cocktails and first of three full bars one entered the even larger service area where the Elon Musk and Ze’ev Drori mingled among the hundred or so invited guests.

Conversation with various Tesla personnel revealed that founder Martin Eberhard received his repaired Roadster earlier in the day. Presumably his blog will shortly contain his first impressions. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, I was told, will be delivered his Roadster within a few weeks, although the color remains top secret. Once he and the state’s First Lady Maria Shriver spend some time driving this powerful and impressive electric car one can only hope state policies will begin to reflect the near-term role that plug-in cars can play in carbon and petroleum reduction.

Popularity: 1% [?]