Posted on 01/25/2010 4:28:22 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Tesla Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy on Thursday finalized a landmark $465 million loan agreement that will allow the electric car maker to build a power train manufacturing plant in Palo Alto.
The agreement also paves the way for Tesla Motors to build a facility in Southern California where it will manufacture its upcoming all-electric Model S sedan.
It is only the second loan agreement the Department of Energy has signed with an "advanced technology vehicle manufacturer" under a program created in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The federal agency first reached a $5.9 billion loan agreement with Ford Motor Co. in September.
"We are honored that the U.S. government selected Tesla to be among the first companies to participate in this visionary program. This loan will allow us to further accelerate the production of affordable, fuel-efficient electric vehicles," Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk said in a statement on the company's Web site.
Best known for its sporty all-electric Roadster, Tesla Motors expects to begin delivering the seven-passenger Model S in 2011. The Southern California plant will allow the company to produce as many as 20,000 vehicles per year by the end of 2013, the Department of Energy said.
The Model S will have a range of up to 300 miles and take about 45 minutes to charge, according to Tesla Motors' Web site. Prices are expected to start just shy of $50,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
What a waste when they don’t have a viable battery...
Fascism Alert.
Something one could buy without a bailout bonus.
“We are such a generous nation.”
Well, but a Palo Alto plant makes such good sense...cheap labor, low real estate costs, easy access to the auto supply industry (Gomer Pyle voice) “I could just go on and on...”
“The Model S will have a range of up to 300 miles and take about 45 minutes to charge, according to Tesla Motors’ Web site. Prices are expected to start just shy of $50,000.”
This is such a joke. If this was truly a promising and cost effective technology there would be private investors lining up. Tesla will be receiving a bailout in a few years.
Wow, and they won’t solve a dang thing! Where is the electricity to power them going to come from? Idiots, these theiving politicians are so generous with our money aren’t they?
Literally dozens of closed auto plants scattered across this nation, along with trained workforces, and Tesla has to build a new plant in Silicon Valley, one of the highest real estate markets in the nation?
Genius.
Is that right on the fault line or only a mile or two away?
Not if they build it in California. They will be lucky if they can built them for twice that cost.
Just remember Tesla spelled backwards is al set. The greenies may be all set, but they got no place to go.
Let private capital fund this if it is a good idea.
Say Norm, mind if I stop by your place to visit? BTW, do you have a place to plug in my car?
Let me count the ways you can spell B-O-O-N-D-O-G-G-L-E
which will probably be protested/delayed/made more costly by environmentalists.
You can’t make that determination yet. If Tesla pays us back, then all is well. Just like the bank bailout.
just bring a long extension cord.
An anagram of Tesla is: least.
Of course, all the usual liberal bigwigs are invested in Tesla. I’m pretty sure even Al Gore has a stake, as does the Google owners. Nothing more than a government subsidy for expensive toys for big Democratic Party donors in Silicon Valley.
Tesla Board of Directors makes an interesting read
http://www.teslamotors.com/learn_more/company_board.php
Kimbal Musk
Director
His prior and current board seats, in addition to Tesla Motors, are Medium, Inc., Everdream Corp., BlackBook Media, SpaceX Corp., and ProgressNow.org.
http://www.progressnow.org./
[The Model S will have a range of up to 300 miles and take about 45 minutes to charge]
Why do I just get the itchy feeling that that is too many amps to pull in 45 minutes through a 110 volt wall socket? Heck, you can only get one car battery to charge fully in an hour using a charger. So doing a whole bank in 45 minutes is cooking.
Whose going to buy this car?
Sounds very expensive to maintain, and not very convenient.
It would seem that if someone was vain enough to buy and drive an all-electric vehicle with all of its inconveniences, they’d look to buy the next generation Prius or another vehicle with a major manufacturer behind it.
Anytime you get rich used car salesmen around crooked politicians, you end up with the taxpayers slaving away their lives for NOTHING.
Another anagram for Tesla = Steal. Coincidence?
Where will they get the electricity? There are not enough power plants.
Do you think these “volkswagons” come with their own windmills?
The DOE continues to do everything it can to prolong and increase our dependence on foreign oil from the wrong people. The more government chooses and uses our money to subsidize “alternative” energy that does not work in the market place the londer we will avoid the clear solution of producing the oil we have and doing it better and letting the market drive innovation in its use.
Tesla Motors files for bankrupcy
-OR-
Tesla Motors moves production to China.
Must have strick out looking for a plant in the Detroit area.
That’s a very pretty car, sort of like a miata. You can just lash the kids to the top when you are taking them to school. And maybe when I’m rebuilding the engine to my 57 Bel Air (which has a trunk the size of the Tesla) I can just set the Chevy block in the back seat of the Tesla if I pop off the back window.
Here’s a bet. My 57 Bel Air will still be on the road 50 years from now (at 103) while any unrepairable Teslas left will be working as boat anchors.
struck out
An All-Electric Sedan, Awaiting Federal Aid NY Times ^ | March 26, 2009 | CLAIRE CAIN MILLER
The list is numbingly long.
I call PR
Most real thing on their website is the press release that they have hired a PR firm to issue press releases.
Like the "Tesla" front company that comes out with a fundraising press release every three months.
There is plenty of power in CA because all the manufacturing has left.
I support all-electric cars and the nuclear plants to provide the power supply.
I hope they design the plant so that it can be used for something else once the electric car stops being a fad we cannot afford.
If they can keep the cost at estimates, this is only 9,000 more than the GM Volt ... and it's all electric.
Pretty nice car, IMO.
is this where all the green jobs are?
They are not seriously in business. It's all paper. IPO's, pump and dump, etc.
Yes, thats a fact. No viable battery. The government saves a company thats all hat and no cattle. Using our money to keep it going when u=it should go under, because why? Its a company that is politically correct on energy.
Wet dreamers! They don;t have a battery! What will they do, hook the cars up to hprses? Buahahahahahaha!
Sheer Idiocy.Criminal use of tax money.
Don't kid yourself; that ridiculous pile of hazardous waste on wheels is the darling of the EnviroNAZI.
The Tesla being all electric is not a benefit.
What if you need to acclerate quickly in emergency manueurs or you are driving up a hill when traffic stalls? And your range is drastically reduced?
300 miles is IF they meet their battery targets becuase the batter does not exist yet.
This theoretical battery on a perfect day with perfect temperature and humidity with a feather left foot will reach 300 mile range.
We all know how often perfection with multiple variables happens.
What if your destination is 150-200 miles away?
What if your destination is only 100 miles away but you get stuck on the freeway for hours or get detoured?
It looks like a standard 5 passenger sedan but it says it is 7 passenger?
The Volt is a political statement for rich Greenies and Anti-Oil Hawks.
The Tesla is a toy for the super rich.
Nobody is his right mind that can afford one $50-60K car will get a Tesla.
After the Leonardo DiCaprio’s and Jay Leno’s of they world get their Volt, there will be many upper-middle class people that will buy a Volt as their only or primary car.
Oddly enough, all of those things are in fact available in the vicinity of Palo Alto. There's plenty of light industrial square-footage available for a song, the NUMMI plant in Fremont (just across the short Dumbarton Bridge) is closing and there are plenty of workers and suppliers looking for something to do, etc. Not to mention East Palo Alto.
I assume our Democratic Gods and Goddesses have something to do with this, because after all, this is their play area. Or maybe some of the executives responsible live in posh SF Peninsula neighborhoods and don't want to commute too much.
There’s an empty plant in Fremont that they can probably get real cheap, and there are 7000 or so laid off employees of NUMI available...
Tesla won’t be paying anyone back; everything they’ve done has been on OPM and they’re running out of suckers.
I doubt they will stoop to take a “used” plant and the unions will probably make a case that California wages need to be double what they are in Michigan.
Precisely!
Sure, but the power still comes from the EVIL oil or coal industry. Unless these things come with magical unicorn power!
The 45 minute charge is on a dedicated 300 amp circuit.
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