Government loans
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Only three U.S. presidents in history have visited the Detroit Auto Show in its century-plus of existence: Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1960, Bill Clinton in 1999, and now Barack Obama, yesterday. At various points during the day, the president lauded the ongoing recoveries of the city of Detroit itself as well as the domestic automakers, including the two that declared bankruptcy in 2009 and had to be rescued with government-backed restructurings early in his administration. Show organizers noted that Obama stopped at several different exhibits, including those of Chevrolet, Fiat Chrysler, and...
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DoE Reboots Advanced Auto-Tech Loan Program That Funded Ford, Nissan, Tesla, FiskerIt's baaaaaaaaaaaack. U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced yesterday that the DoE had revised and updated its Advanced-Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) program, which offers low-interest loans to carmakers and their suppliers. Any new loans, according to a Detroit News...
John Voelcker -
Biofuel Company Latest To Pay Off Government Loan Early
Government lending to green technology companies has been a political hot potato in recent years. Huge loans were offered to dozens of companies. Automakers, solar companies, biofuel concerns and more received money, but high-profile failures like Solyndra lent credence to those critical of the...
Antony Ingram -
Henrik Fisker Partners With Chinese Firm To Bid For Fisker Automotive?
The man after whom electric automaker Fisker Automotive is named, Henrik Fisker, could now be the man who buys back the company as it spirals into bankruptcy. Just a week after ex-GM executive Bob Lutz and Chinese firm Wanxiang bid for the ailing automaker, Reuters reports the company's co-founder...
Antony Ingram -
Congress Sets Date For Fisker Loan Hearings: April 24
Green energy and electric vehicles are an easy target for politicians at the best of times, but even more so when they fail, taking down millions in unpaid government loans with them. Fisker Automotive isn't dead yet but it does owe the U.S. Department of Energy a large proportion of the $193...
Antony Ingram -
Senators Question DoE Loans To Fisker, Cite Qatar Investment
It's fair to say Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors is on a high at the moment. The first owners finally have their brand new 2012 Tesla Model S cars, and the company is receiving plenty of positive media attention. Meanwhile, its rival Fisker has been much quieter--and when there has been news...
Antony Ingram -
After revealing more details about the Tesla Model S just last week, Tesla Motors said it expected to use the last of its Department of Energy loan by the end of this year. The company now confirms it also has plans to start paying back the loan this year too--and will be the first company to do so. Speaking to Bloomberg, Tesla chief financial officer Deepak Ahuja said "We are delivering on the milestones, what we're committed to...once we are delivering customer cars, that signifies completion of the project". That suggests that Tesla will begin to repay the loan as soon as the first...
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Elon Musk: Daimler Saved Tesla, DoE Loans A Bad Idea
In the toughest days of Tesla's early years, CEO Elon Musk said on film, he wired $3 million of his personal fortune to the company so it could make payroll. Now the always-quotable CEO is downplaying the effect the $465 million in U.S. Department of Energy low-interest loan guarantees it received...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Chrysler Abandons Quest For Energy Dept Low-Interest Loans
The U.S. Department of Energy hasn't made any new loans under its Advanced Technology Vehicle Program in well over a year. At its current rate, it may never do so. The latest company to walk away from applications for low-interest loans from the $25 billion DoE program is Chrysler. This afternoon...
John Voelcker -
Fisker Loan Woes: Bump In The Road, Or A Big Pothole?
On Monday, we told you that California-based Fisker Automotive had announced it was laying off employees and contractors after it missed deadlines associated with its $529 million low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Energy. But while Fisker’s cull of employees has totaled at least...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield
