Yes, they did the same with Chrysler under Lee Iacocca all those years ago as well, and you know, I don't have a huge problem with a loan with interest under conditions like those two examples. Now, the Government Motors thing was nothing less than a Marxist take-over and a theft of shareholder value to gift it to unions. Then they try to pretend they paid their loan back...HA! But that is another issue altogether not related to this thread.aggievaulter07 said:I wasn't trying to change anything. When I said "I assume you know", I really did assume you knew that. I was just adding that detail. Some people think the government was just handing them money (tax dollars), so it's important for those people to know that the government loaned them money, and they paid it back early, and paid extra to do so. The government didn't give away our tax dollars, in that instance. The government MADE money by giving Tesla a loan.WHOOP!'91 said:Which changes nothing about the state of their business not so long ago, which was obviously my point. Also, that Tesla has a continues to profit from carbon credits, which are a government distortion of the markets.aggievaulter07 said:I assume you know that Tesla paid that loan back early, obviously with interest, but also with an early payment penalty, as well. That's how bad they wanted to get out from under that debt to the government.WHOOP!'91 said:Now they do. They didn't 15 years ago. They have and continue to make a lot of money selling carbon credits.Teslag said:
They have a product that millions of people want and who will pay enough to generate substantial margins. That's a winning formula for a successful business.
Not so long ago, they had one car - the roadster - and not enough money to even make the cars they had already sold. Daimler-Chrysler bought a small stake, the Dept of Energy made a loan and they built the cars.
These are just facts. I think Elon Musk is an absolute genius and has parlayed a $30MM investment in 2004 into 100s of billions of net worth. Amazing.
Here and now, Tesla is competing just fine. They only got to this place by government forcing.
Still burns my biscuits, and I won't touch a Government Motors product in my lifetime.