Calif. throws subsidy at Tesla Motors

http://www.calwatchdog.com ^ | 10-12-12 | Joseph Perkins

[Texas Eagle]

Calif. throws subsidy at Tesla Motors

Calif. throws subsidy at Tesla Motors

Oct. 12, 2012

By Joseph Perkins

Memo to Occupy San Jose: I’ve got a ripe target for you on Santana Row, playpen for the Silicon Valley wealthy.

Not Gucci, Burberry, Ferragamo or the other upscale stores along the Row. But Tesla Motors, the electric carmaker, whose co-founder and CEO, Elon Musk, boasts a $2.4 billion net worth.

Musk is not merely a member of America’s 1 percent, for which Occupy has much contempt. He’s a member of the 1 percent of 1 percent.

That’s why it is so unseemly that the California Energy Commission just gifted Tesla Motors $10 million to pay for machinery it purchased for its Freemont factory. Tesla will use the tax dollars, supposedly, to add 500 workers to build its Model X, a rechargable sports utility vehicle.

[Texas Eagle]

Note to search Nazis: This is a different story from this thread which was posted earlier The DOE Restructured Its Loan to Tesla [Elon Musk's green car] National Review Online [Planet Gore] ^ | October 10, 2012 | Greg Pollowitz Posted on 10/11/2012 2:37:20 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

[svcw]

The Tesla is a beautiful machine on the outside.

[Haiku Guy]

The Tesla is a beautiful machine on the outside.

The Tesla is vaporware.

They make them pretty on the outside so they can show them off to credulous investors and bilk them of their money. The State of California is just dumping another layer of money on top of Billions that have already been sunk into a company that will never produce a significant number of vehicles.

The purpose of the company is to fleece investors, not to build cars.

[Texas Eagle]

No argument there.

But....

It’s bad enough that the 99.9 percent of us that are not multi-billionaires like Musk have to subsidize his car company. But it’s patently unjust that the state’s most needful drivers — the working poor, the unemployed, the elderly on fixed incomes — have to bear that burden.

The state Energy Commission’s $10 million giveaway to Tesla might be less outrageous if the company was non-profit; if it was developing its modern electric version of the old German gasoline-fueled “people’s car,” which came to be known here in the states as the Volkswagon.

But Tesla Motors is hardly manufacturing any low-priced, low maintenance people’s cars. It’s producing automotive toys for the decidedly well-to-do. The kind of volk who drop by its Santana Row showroom.

Indeed, Tesla’s very first offering to the car buying public was a $109,000 fully-electric roadster. Its second offering, the Model S, a luxury sedan, had a base price of $57,400 to $77,400.

Tesla’s Model X, which is scheduled to go into production in 2014, according to Tesla spokeswoman Christine Ra, will start at $60,000 and top out at $100,000.

[bmwcyle]

Tesla will use the tax dollars

When are we going to elect people who will stop handing out our money?

[Texas Eagle]

When are we going to elect people who will stop handing out our money?

We'll find out in a few weeks if this year is "when". I'm not holding my breath.

The problem is, this money was handed out by a bureaucRAT.

That's what we need to stop spending money on. Nameless, faceless bureaucracies that spend our money as if it grows on trees.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Musk is not merely a member of America’s 1 percent, for which Occupy has much contempt. He’s a member of the 1 percent of 1 percent.

A very good point. When Obama speaks of "millionaires and billionaires," he confuses the 1 percent with the .01%.

I'm afraid to have a debate drinking game keyed on "millionaires and billionaires." It would be hazardous to my health.

[no-s]

The problem is, this money was handed out by a bureaucRAT. That's what we need to stop spending money on. Nameless, faceless bureaucracies that spend our money as if it grows on trees.

Exactly. I laugh at the idea the problem is in the California Legislature. The legislature is the bootcamp for high-ranking state bureaucrats. It's completely subordinated to the state government power centers. What we have in California is bureaucratic despotism, not a republic.

[paul51]

California Energy Commission just gifted Tesla Motors $10 million

I wonder how much of that money finds it's way back to corrupt bureaucrats and politicians. I'm curious what the going kick back rate is these days.

[Secret Agent Man]

2.4 billion built on nothing but handouts and broken promises.

[RFEngineer]

As far as I can find, there has never been a “real world” test of this vehicle’s range. I suspect it’s much less than advertised in the real world.