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Tesla Nabs $465M Government Loan To Build Model S
SignalFreq writes "Tesla Motors, based in San Carlos, California, was approved yesterday for $465M in loans from the Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program. Tesla plans to use $365M of the money to finance a manufacturing facility for the Model S (review, Letterman video) and $100M for a powertrain manufacturing plant in the SF Bay Area. 'Tesla will use the ATVM loan precisely the way that Congress intended — as the capital needed to build sustainable transport,' said Tesla CEO and Product Architect Elon Musk. Tesla expects the Model S to ship in late 2011 and the base cost to be $57,400 ($49,900 after a federal tax credit). Ford received $5.9B and Nissan received $1.6B under the same program."
This ridiculous argument makes my blood boil.
The term "liberal" or "conservative" is relative to what is considered normal for the country. Centerists are right down the middle, liberals are to the left, conservatives are to the right.
Relative to Stalin, yeah, Obama is a hard-line conservative; relative to what is considered normal for American politics, he is an ultra liberal in favor of major social programs OR! wait for it.....a socialist.
NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
You are wrong. My friend's father built an electric porche for 12k in the early 90s. The car has a range of nearly 200 miles if I recall, and still runs wonderfully to this day.
Please, by all means, STFU and quit spewing paid-pundit lies from TV.
Learn and know for yourself -- Get involved and quit echoing the words of liars that you love to trust.
I'm anti-subsidy for luxury car manufacturers. Starting at $49,900 -- bah! How about spending a fraction of this to rip out the engine of a Chevy Aveo and put in an electric motor? How about an electric car people can actually buy? Innovation not required!
Maybe if Americans changed their definition of "luxury" prices and paid more for their damn cars like the rest of us elsewhere the world, you wouldn't be in this mess. Far be it for one of us non-Americans to criticise the bastion of capitalism, but my guess is at some point GM & Chrysler lost sight of the goal of actually making some fucking money on their cars, and the desire to always pay bottom dollar to snatch it from the hands of a worker elsewhere in the country... maybe, just maybe, leads to the current result.
Germans buy German cars, Japanese buy Japanese cars, Koreans buy Korean cars. Americans buy whatever is cheapest. Result? China and Japan together own your treasury from money you handed over to them wilfully.
Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.