Ford, Nissan and Tesla Receive $8 Billion Loan from US Government
The Energy department of the US government have given Ford, Nissan and Tesla a total sum of $8 billion. This money will be used to sustain and create new jobs while developing fuel efficient cars for the future generations.
The US government has given the low interest loans to help increase jobs in the industry, aswell as creating new greener cars.
The overall loan will be split up differently to each manufacturer. Ford has received the majority, $5.9 billion. This money is going to be used to develop entirely new electric cars, aswell as new tech for gasoline engines.
This money given to Ford has been very handy because of the extremely low interest rate of around 3.75%. If they had tried to get this money on the open market, they would have to expect to pay double figured interest rates.
The second largest amount of the loan will be going to Nissan who are getting $1.6 billion. They have released details that the money will be spent making lithium ion batteries in one of their car plants. These new batteries created will then be placed into a new electric car for 2012.
Finally, Tesla are only going to receive a small amount of the total loan. Only a small sum of $465 million is going to Tesla in loans. A big lump of their money will be going to develop their new Model S Sedan which will require a new factory in California. The other chunk of their loan will be going to make new car parts for other manufacturers.
Hopefully, with this loan given to the car makers, we will see some new fuel efficient cars being developed for the market. Having the ability to choose an electric car when leasing would save you even more cash. I imagine a huge number of people with a Ford lease or Nissan lease would love to have an electric car as this would save them even more money.