Tom Nelson: Tesla Motors has many EXTREMELY wealthy private investors, so why is the Obama administration giving them public funds?

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Tesla Motors has many EXTREMELY wealthy private investors, so why is the Obama administration giving them public funds?

[Why couldn't Tesla get this $465 million from the private sector?] - WSJ

On Tuesday, the federal government announced $2.1 billion in loans to Nissan Motor and another $465 million for Tesla Motors. The companies will use the money to retool factories in Tennessee and California, respectively. Nissan says it plans to produce more than 100,000 electric cars annually by 2012.

Tesla Motors: Information from Answers.com

Tesla's third round included investment from prominent entrepreneurs including Google co-founders Sergey Brin & Larry Page, former eBay President Jeff Skoll, Hyatt heir Nick Pritzker and added the VC firms Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Capricorn Management and The Bay Area Equity Fund managed by JPMorgan Chase.[1]

The fourth, Series D round in May 2007 added another USD$45 million and brought the total investments to over $105 million USD through private financing. The fifth, Series E round in February 2008 added another USD$40 million. Elon Musk, who was President of PayPal before it was bought by eBay, has contributed $70 million of his own money to the company. By January, 2009, Tesla had raised USD$187 million and delivered 147 cars.[3][4]

Larry Page - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia