Thursday June 25, 2009

Tesla Model S electric car gets $465 million federal funding from Obama Administration

wired.com :

The Obama Administration will lend Tesla Motors $465 million to build an electric car and the batteries to propel it. It's one of three loans totaling almost $8 billion that the Department of Energy has awarded to spur the development of fuel-efficient vehicles. Ford gets $5.9 billion to retool 11 factories in 5 states. Nissan will receive $1.6 billion to refurbish a factory in Tennessee to produce electric cars. The Obama Administration has announced that it is raising average fuel-efficiency standards from 27.5 miles per gallon to 35 miles per gallon by 2016.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the Tesla Model S could share components with Mercedes sedans now that Daimler has taken a 10% stake in Tesla to develop the Smart EV. Musk said Daimler's investment in Tesla coupled with the federal loan and revenue from the Tesla Roadster leaves the company "in pretty good shape" financially, and the Tesla Model S could be on the road by end-2011. Ford said it will have an EV by 2011. Nissan plans to put an electric car in showrooms next year, with its Tennessee factory employing 1,300 people and building 50,000 to 100,000 cars at full production.

- And to think that some of us were concerned about Tesla's finances not that long ago. Good to see the Obama Administration do something better, for a change. Better to throw $400 million at an electric car maker who will bring forward the state of the art in automotive technology than to throw $400 billion at those financial black holes who call themselves banks. Looking forward to the next generation of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles.

See also :

1. GM unveils production version of Chevrolet Volt PHEV plug-in hybrid car
2. Toyota to launch pure electric car based on FT-EV concept in US by 2012
3. Tesla Model S electric car unveiled, specifications include 300-mile range, 5.6 sec 0-60 mph timing
4. Nissan snubs hybrids, to build over 100000 electric cars per year from 2012

(2009-06-25 12:56:25 SGT) [Energy] Permalink Comments [1]

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