Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk repaid the $451.8 million loan to the U.S. government nine years ahead of schedule. Tesla has faced a lot of criticism over the loan it received from the Department of Energy. Now, Elon Musk-led electric car maker is the only U.S. car maker to have fully repaid the government loan under the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program of DOE. Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) recently raised about $1 billion in a stock and bond offering.
The government will make approximately $12 million from its $465 million loan to the electric car maker, according to Forbes. Elon Musk expressed his gratefulness to the government for its help in getting the Model S in the market. He thanked the Congress, DOE, their staff and the American taxpayer.
Tesla Irritated Chrysler
But Elon Musk’s statement on Twitter, which says that Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is the only American car maker to have fully repaid the government loan, didn’t go down well with Chrysler Group LLC chief Sergio Marchionne. Chrysler immediately issued its own statement, saying that Tesla shouldn’t forget that Chrysler had fully repaid its loan. Chrysler chief took a veiled shot at Elon Musk with “Question: short memory or short-circuit?”
Sergio Marchionne clarified that Musk’s information is incorrect. It’s a well-known fact that Chrysler Group LLC fully repaid its loan along with interests to the U.S. and Canadian governments six years early.
But Sergio Marchionne hid an important part of his story. Of course, Chrysler repaid the $5.9 billion loan it received as a part of a larger bailout of the company by the taxpayer. But Chrysler Group LLC was forced to repay because interest rates on those loans were between 7 percent and 14 percent, compared to Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s 1-3 percent.
And yes, Chrysler Group LLC hadn’t repaid all of another $12.4 billion bailout money. For that, Treasury Department had received stock in the company, which it sold back to Chrysler in 2011. Treasury suffered a loss of $1.3 billion on that loan.
Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares were up 2.01 percent to $88.99 at 12:46 PM EDT.
