Lawfuel.com – Issues relating to the green Tesla Model vehicle that was born under the Bush administration and developed further under the Obama one, may yet have problems when the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing loan program creates problems for the Tesla.
The Tesla models have had to trim over $1.5 billion from the budget and the bankruptcy of the solar panel company Solyndra earlier this month has placed increasing focus upon the green project such as the Tesla models.
ATVM is a big target because it has lent only $9.1 billion of the $25 billion to just six companies, though it has 18 applications for about $10 billion total under review.
And automakers are doing well financially, while American buyers already are showing more interest in fuel-efficient vehicles, lessening pressure to subsidize building such vehicles.
Loans have been provided to a pair of auto start-up companies, Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive, which still are far from being ready to produce the cars for which they primarily received the loans. Ford Motor — which has become one of the most profitable automakers, with net income of $2.4 billion in the second quarter alone — also is the biggest loan recipient to date, with nearly $6 billion. And Nissan, a Japanese automaker, will make electric-car batteries in the U.S. in the future.
