http://www.teslamotors.com/about/press/releases/tesla-repays-department-energy-loan-nine-years-early The press release is out ...
This is a big win for the American Taxpayer, supporters of the AVTMLP and the DOE employees entrusted with administering the program in what was probably a thankless job. Here's a big thanks from one Tesla Model S owner!
For some reason this feels like one of those "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" event.
Excellent last line. "They did us all proud". And I, for one, am so glad to be along for the journey. Thanks, DOE; and most importantly ... thank you Elon and everyone at TM for making such a difference!
As a Tesla fan this really makes me happy to see the company repay the debt. Now when someone asks why did the government give the company money to a company who will never repay.. i can say ... It was paid in full, with interest. Good day for sure..
This is a huge day in Tesla Motors history. Also a huge day for the future of the automotive industry. Proud to be driving a Model S. Now, all those negative comments on the news seem very petty and unwarranted.
Here is the DOE response... Moniz: Tesla Repayment Shows the Strength of Energy Department’s Overall Loan Portfolio | Department of Energy
Tesla pays off U.S. loan http://www.teslamotors.com/about/press/releases/tesla-repays-department-energy-loan-nine-years-early US taxpayers make $12 million, and thousands of jobs in the US, including design, development, production, factory, sales, support, marketing, plus store construction and rent, etc., etc. BTW, a big thank you to the shorters for the gift money to pay off the debt!
Wow, this is now the #4 top trending story on Yahoo. I know it is big news around here but it seems a bit surprising to be trending that high, or at all. Maybe because Tesla was kicked around politically? Seems more business news then front page news, not complaining, just saying...
Next time some numskull sprouts off a lame comment to a Telsa story about how they benefited from the government loan, I'm going to remind them that Ford borrowed almost 6 BILLION in the same program and hasn't paid the loan off yet.
A question for all the financially talented types out there.... I was always led to believe that you normally never do something with equity that can be accomplished with debt. How does that apply hear (obviously it did not)?
They mostly issued preferred shares, which are basically a form of debt, not equity (they have no voting rights). It's complicated because they are convertible, which makes them a bit of a hybrid. However, they didn't do a straight secondary like in October, which was raising money purely with equity.
Stunning news. This part of DOE's statement is particularly interesting. Puts things in perspective. “More than 90 percent of loan loss reserve Congress established remains intact, while losses to date represent about 2 percent of the overall $34 billion portfolio. The other 98 percent of the portfolio includes 19 new clean energy power plants that are adding enough solar, wind and geothermal capacity to power a million homes and displace 7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year – roughly equal to taking a million cars off the road."
Fantastic news. I'm just happy that the DOE loan is no longer an issue, because I was getting tired of the whole thing being brought up on news sites all the time. One less thing for the haters to gripe about.
Yep, one less talking point for the EV bashers (although I bet you will still see people bring it up, since they don't know the loan was paid off).