It seems to me that the Federal Government furnishing of
loans to Tesla at this stage of the economic cycle is a perfectly reasonable fulfilment of its duties. I’m no economist but there are a great many corporations out there that will go bust because of the unavailability of working capital.
In recessions ‘The Market’ gets screwed up and that leads to pointlessly destructive instability, which governments possibly have a duty to mitigate. (
Keynesian economics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
I personally don’t believe that Mr Musk is out to screw the US Government, he’s a very rich man and #ucking with Uncle Sam usually results in a lengthy prison sentence.
He has teamed up with one of the most innovative chassis and technology manufacturers in the world (LOTUS) and his Type S uses Lotus’s VVA architecture and will benefit from all the development that Lotus did with Zap for the drivetrain. Most of Tesla’s Type S is production ready because Lotus have made it so.
The technology needed to make the Type S useable and affordable is already out there and ready for mass manufacture, why not Tesla?
In my opinion a combination of Li ion batteries and Ultra capacitors (
Electric double-layer capacitor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) and perhaps even in combination with a small fuel cell could easily give the Type S a 300mile range.
All the technologies exist but are not yet mass produced. Wasn’t $100 million of the loan for drive train production?
Mr Musk might be personably unlikeable but I reckon even I could suceed in doing what he is proposing - i.e. it's not too far fetched!
IMHO a silent luxurious family saloon that costs pennies to recharge and drives like a lotus will definitely sell 10,000 and it won't be long before he's exporting them to Germany - What a beautiful irony?