Word: tesla
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...also promised $465 million to Tesla, which has already sold 700 of its pure-electric roadsters at more than $109,000 each to Hollywood stars like Leonardo DiCaprio...
...young, untested companies get such generous taxpayer funding? Promising technology certainly counts, but it also pays to have potent political allies. Tesla, founded by the boyish 37-year-old Elon Musk, who made a fortune creating and then selling PayPal to eBay, has drawn support from California environmentalists and political figures such as Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Barbara Boxer, both California Democrats, while Fisker's owners include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of Silicon Valley's most successful venture-capital firms, whose partners include former Vice President Al Gore. "This investment will create thousands of new American jobs...
...also doesn't hurt to keep at least a toe in Michigan. Tesla maintains a small office in the state, while Fisker has more than 200 engineers, 150 of them from suppliers, working at its engineering center in suburban Detroit. The Michigan connection was helpful when Fisker applied for the DOE loans earlier this year. As Gary Peters, the Michigan Democrat, said of Fisker's loan: "Propelling our auto industry into the 21st century is one key to Michigan's economic recovery...
...addition, both companies have attracted overseas capital. Last spring, Daimler AG bought a 10% stake in Tesla to get access to technology, and Fisker's investors include a fund operated by the government of Qatar...
...Tesla says it will use the loans to support two specific projects, including the U.S.-based production, engineering and assembly of the Model S, an all-electric family sedan. The Model S assembly plant will employ about 1,000 workers in Southern California. "We're already engineering the Model S, a seven-seater family sedan that will have a base price of $49,900 after a federal tax credit that will [over the longer term] cost the equivalent of a car that retails for $35,000, given the relatively expensive cost of gasoline vs. electricity," says Diarmuid O'Connell, Tesla...