El fabricante de coches eléctricos devolvió el préstamo que el Gobierno estadounidense le hizo en 2010; en 2012 y en el primer trimestre de 2013 Tesla ya había pagado los primeros plazos del préstamo.
El fabricante de automóviles eléctricos Tesla devolvió al Gobierno estadounidense la totalidad de los 465 millones de dólares estadounidenses que el Departamento de Energía le prestó en el 2010.
El fundador de la empresa, el multimillonario Elon Musk, anunció a través de su cuenta de Twitter que "Tesla transfirió hoy los fondos para devolver el préstamo" del Departamento de Energía.
Se convierte así en "la única compañía de automóviles de Estados Unidos que ha devuelto la totalidad al Gobierno", añadió Musk, conocido por ser el cofundador de PayPal y la empresa aeroespacial SpaceX.
Tesla confirmó a través de un comunicado que hoy transfirió 451,8 millones de dólares, lo que cancela el préstamo, más intereses, que recibió en 2010.
En 2012 y en el primer trimestre de 2013 Tesla ya había pagado los primeros plazos del préstamo.
Musk dio las gracias en el comunicado al Departamento de Energía y el Congreso, que crearon en 2008 el programa Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (AVTM) por el que Washington prestó 25,000 millones de dólares a fabricantes de automóviles para crear vehículos con reducido consumo de combustible.
Gracias a AVTM, Tesla recibió el préstamo a bajo interés de 465 millones de dólares que permitió a la empresa crear el Modelo S, un coche eléctrico de lujo que tiene un precio base en Estados Unidos de unos 70,000 dólares.
El fabricante de automóviles eléctricos utilizó parte de los 1,000 millones de dólares que recaudó la semana pasada con la emisión de acciones y notas senior convertibles para cancelar el préstamo del Departamento de Energía.
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Tesla Repayment Shows the Strength of Energy Department’s Overall Loan Portfolio
Today, Tesla Motors repaid the entire remaining balance on a $465 million loan from the Department of Energy nine years earlier than originally required. U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz made the following statement:
“When you’re talking about cutting-edge clean energy technologies, not every investment will succeed -- but today’s repayment is the latest indication that the Energy Department’s portfolio of more than 30 loans is delivering big results for the American economy while costing far less than anticipated. “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.
“The Department first offered loans to Tesla and other auto manufacturers in June 2009, when car companies couldn’t get other financing and many people questioned whether the industry would survive. Today, Tesla employs more than 3,000 American workers and is living proof of the power of American innovation. This is another important contribution to what the Obama Administration has done to preserve and promote America’s auto industry.
“Finally, this announcement is also good news for the future of America’s growing electric vehicle industry. While the market has taken longer than predicted to get going, sales of electric vehicles in the U.S. tripled last year and are continuing to increase rapidly in 2013. Tesla and other U.S. manufacturers are in a strong position to compete for this growing global market.”
The Department released today a fact sheet providing additional statistics and highlights of the Department’s loan portfolio.
Key Statistics and Highlights of the Department’s Loan Portfolio:
Losses to date in the Department’s loan programs represent about 2 percent of the $34 billion portfolio and less than 10 percent of the $10 billion loan loss reserve that Congress set aside to cover expected losses in the programs.
Many of the nation’s largest and most innovative energy and transportation projects are supported by the Department of Energy’s loan programs, including:
- Several of the world’s largest solar generation facilities and thermal energy storage systems (Ivanpah, Agua Caliente, Desert Sunlight, Abengoa Solana, and Solar Reserve Tonopah)
- One of the world’s largest wind farms (Shepherds Flat)
- The first two all-electric vehicle manufacturing facilities in the U.S. (Tesla and Nissan)
- The first nuclear power plant to be built in the U.S. in the last 30 years (Vogtle)
- The Department provided a $5.9 billion loan to Ford Motor Company to upgrade and modernize thirteen factories across six states and to introduce new technologies to raise the fuel efficiency of more than a dozen popular vehicles, including C-Max Hybrid, Focus, Escape, Fusion, Taurus, and F-150 trucks, representing approximately two million new vehicles annually. This investment is supporting approximately 33,000 manufacturing and engineering jobs across the United States.
- In Smyrna, Tennessee, the first advanced battery packs produced in the United States are coming off the production line of Nissan North America’s production plant. These advanced batteries are powering U.S.-made all electric Nissan LEAF cars. The construction of the 1.3-million-square-foot, state of the art battery facility was made possible through a $1.4 billion loan from the Department of Energy.
- Tesla’s $465 million loan enabled it to reopen a shuttered auto manufacturing plant in Fremont, California and to produce battery packs, electric motors, and other powertrain components. Tesla vehicles have won wide acclaim, including the 2013 Car of the Year from both Motor Trend and Automotive Magazine, and Consumer Reports recently rated Tesla’s Model S as tied for the best car ever rated. Tesla has created more than 3,000 full-time jobs in California – far more than the company initially estimated – and is building out a supply chain that supports numerous additional jobs and technologies, and is bringing advanced manufacturing technology back to America.