Electric Car Company Tesla repaying U.S Govt. Loans ahead of Schedule

Back in 2011 the electric car company Tesla Motors received a $465 million loan from the American Department for Energy to help expand business operations and the growth of the company in an effort to promote more environmentally friendly forms of transport within the United States. The loan was given to the electric car company with the intention that it would be paid back in full by 2022. It seems now that business must be booming at Tesla with their electric car sales because they now plan to repay this loan 5 years ahead of schedule by 2017.

In Tesla’s annual financial report, released on March 7th 2013, Tesla amended the repayment agreement. Their Chief Financial Office, Deepak Ahuja, said that the repayments will begin in 2015 (2 years from now) and will be completed with a lump sum in 2017 (4 years from now). This announcement just goes to show how well the company is clearly doing in terms of sales, operating efficiency and what’s more impressive is that it has done all this in a time of relative economic stagnation and uncertainty that pervades the United States of America and the rest of the Westernised world.

One of the big incentives for Tesla to pay this loan off was the fact that if they hadn’t completed the repayment it by full by 2022 then the U.S government would get 3 million shares and by the looks of things in the next 9 years those Tesla shares are likely to get very valuable indeed if current growth in electric car sales continues. Tesla’s latest production model is a 4 door Sedan, Model S, which has been highly acclaimed winning 2013 car of the year by the Motor Trend magazine, among many other awards. Interestingly enough for Americans is the fact Tesla says they will be producing their first SUV in the fall of 2014 at their Fremont California plant, perfect for the American market where the SUV is still the car in-fashion. 15,000 of these Model X SUVs will be available, and more if demanded.

The future certainly looks bright for Tesla and the electric car industry. Do you think electric cars are a good idea? Would you ever buy one? Have you already got one? Let us know your thoughts on this story.

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