Elon Musk is hoping that U.S. Federal funds will accelerate its 4-door sedan electric car project
At a press conference at Tesla’s store in Menlo Park, Calif., Elon Musk confirmed that without the U.S. government subsidies, the Silicon Valley electric car company will have to delay the manufacturing of its future $60,000 all-electric luxury sedan by at least 2-years.
“We don’t need the government fund to pay for the design of the sedan version of our electric car which is mostly done; it will be unveiled in the February time frame. We already have a mule down in our facilities in Los Angeles. But we need the money to accelerate the program to build the factory,” explains Musk.
With public markets still in flux, the U.S. government is the only alternative for Tesla Motors to raise the money necessary to build its $250 million factory in San Jose, Calif.
“It will take 2-years to build the factory after we get the Federal money. But without it, we’ll have to wait at least 2-years before we could raise money from the public markets and then 2 more years to build the plant. And that’s a big deal for a mass-market car,” adds Musk who’s “family car” is a 4-seat Porsche Turbo.
Despite the uncertainty, the serial entrepreneur is confident his model “S” sedan electric car will be built and sold no matter what. However, the Federal money will just make it happened a lot sooner!
Jean-Baptiste Su
Mark Boslet
