To: ChinuSFO who wrote (135550 ) 8/8/2013 4:53:36 PM From: RetiredNow Read Replies (1) | Respond to Score one for Obama on his loans to alternative energy car companies. Everyone always publishes the losers, but Tesla is a big time winner. It's one last area that I see eye to eye with Obama on...renewable energy and alternatives to the oil and coal crowd.Consumer Reports gave the Model S a near-perfect rating of 99 out of 100 points. “What’s more impressive than even the profit numbers are the increasing rate of production and growing margin that they’re making per vehicle,” Karl Brauer, an analyst with Kelley Blue Book, told Bloomberg. “They’re selling a lot more vehicles than I think a lot of people expected.”In May, Tesla said that it had repaid the entire $465 million loan it received from the U.S. Department of Energy, nine years ahead of schedule. The U.S. loan was part of the government’s 2010 Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program, a $25 billion fund authorized by Congress, signed by President George W. Bush, and awarded under President Obama. The loan repayment was a major vindication for Tesla, which was branded as a “loser” company by Mitt Romney during his unsuccessful 2012 Republican presidential campaign. business.time.com
