Article from Noah from Pre-Dinner/ Model X event

[markwj]

Indeed, she’d originally contacted Tesla about the Model S sedan, a car promising roughly twice the luxury and space as the Roadster at two-thirds the price. A salesperson talked her into test driving the two-seater anyway, and twelve weeks later she had herself an electric sports car.

BTW Bonnie, I had the EXACT same story as you:

Me three ;-)

 

[Doug_G]

Four, I have to confess.

 

[Norbert]

The other part of Tesla's "bankroll" came from the sale of stock in the initial IPO and later in a second offering of stock for sale to the public.

There are others here who know the history better, but I think much of the original funding came from Elon (who still owns more than 30% or so) and others, and also investments from Daimler, Toyota, and Panasonic.

 

[Tommy]

Agreed, I am just disheartened that reporters seem to solely focus on the government loan to Tesla and ignore the other funding sources that got the ball rolling as well; most of the times they don't even specify the government funds were a loan and leave it to the reader's imagination that the money was a giveaway.

 

[AnOutsider]

Agreed, I am just disheartened that reporters seem to solely focus on the government loan to Tesla and ignore the other funding sources that got the ball rolling as well; most of the times they don't even specify the government funds were a loan and leave it to the reader's imagination that the money was a giveaway.

Either ignorance or just trying to throw some juicy meat out there for commenters to nibble on.

 

[WhiteKnight]

If Tesla is successful with Model S and Model X there will be no shortage of people willing to throw money at them. The government loans will be ancient history.

 

[dsm363]

I'm hoping Tesla has a ceremony where they hand a DOE official a big check showing they paid their loan off in full and we can stop hearing about 'government bailout' from certain news organizations.

 

[VolkerP]

I'm hoping Tesla has a ceremony where they hand a DOE official a big check showing they paid their loan off in full and we can stop hearing about 'government bailout' from certain news organizations.

They will make a head line "Continued public pressure made Tesla pay back govt money." If you don't stick with the truth, there are no limits how far you can go.

 

[brianman]

They’ve also set the world distance record of 311 miles for a production electric car on a single charge

How is this measured / certified? If it's from logs from the car, it would make a fun "race" to see who can hit 350 mi./charge in the S or X first.

Also, an app to track "personal best" would be fun as well.