DOE Closes $465M Loan to Tesla Motors
22 January 2010
The US Department of Energy has closed its $465 million loan with Tesla Motors, Inc. for construction of a manufacturing facility in southern California on the Model S electric sedan and a power-train manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, California. (Earlier post.)
The Palo Alto facility will assemble electric vehicle battery packs, electric motors, and related electric vehicle control equipment, both for Tesla’s own electric vehicles and for sale to other automobile manufacturers.
The agreement was negotiated and signed by the Department’s Loan Programs Office.
This is an investment in our clean energy future that will create jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. It will help build a customer base and begin laying the foundation for American leadership in the growing electric vehicles industry. This is part of a sustained effort to develop and commercialize technologies that will be broadly deployed throughout the American auto industry.
—Energy Secretary Steven Chu
Tesla’s planned Model S is being designed to offer a variety of range options depending on the battery pack used, from 160 to 300 miles on a single charge. Volume production of the Model S is planned to begin in 2012 with a target production capacity of 20,000 vehicles per year by the end of 2013.
The announcement marks the second loan arrangement agreement signed by DOE with an advanced technology vehicle manufacturer. In September 2009, DOE signed its first loan agreement for $5.9 billion to Ford Motor Company. The Department has also signed conditional commitments with Nissan North America, Inc. and Fisker Automotive. Tenneco Inc. became the first advanced technology component manufacturer to obtain a conditional commitment from DOE in October of last year. Nissan plans to build electric cars and battery packs at the company’s Smyrna, Tennessee manufacturing complex, while Fisker recently announced plans to build plug-in hybrid electric vehicles by reopening a shuttered GM plant in Wilmington, Delaware.
The Department of Energy was appropriated $7.5 billion by Congress to support up to $25 billion in loans to companies making cars and components in US factories that increase fuel economy at least 25 percent above 2005 fuel economy levels. The Department plans to make additional loans over the next several months to large and small auto manufacturers and parts suppliers up and down the production chain.
This TESLA model should be retrofitted with a tiny butane powered generator. A standard torch cylinder should give ten to twenty miles of operation with low batteries. No full electric vehicles! ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 22 January 2010 at 09:40 AM
Ah henry... you never fail to astound. This is great news for electrification and first high end EV on the world market. Tesla, as startup by silicon valley entrepreneurs has proven to the world that we are ready and anxious to move to EVs. This is a loan well deserved and in service to all Americans in that it speeds our move away from fossil fuels.
What few here at GCC understand is sustainability and electrification will move ahead just fine without burden of the climate change charade. Had you accepted this two or three years ago - you wouldn't be wondering why your halos were confiscated.
Posted by: sulleny | 22 January 2010 at 11:16 AM
Sulleny, you forget half the picture. Sustainability is not just electrification. The generation of that electricity is the other half.
That's where your 'climate change charade' comes in. Without that, there would be no motivation for sustainability at this point. There is simply too much coal. The only motivation to leave that coal underground and move towards sustainable electricity generation *now* is climate change. Whether you like it or not.
Posted by: Arne | 24 January 2010 at 11:35 PM
The (current) cheapness of natural gas seems to be a good reason to de-carbonize. We'll see how long that lasts.
H.G. seems to be wedded to a bunch of very mistaken ideas. It may be that his whole purpose in life is to be a warning to others.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 25 January 2010 at 02:21 PM