Uncle Sam expands funding of electric cars R&D
Ford, Nissan and Tesla are the first to get loans
Tom Stundza -- Purchasing, 6/24/2009 12:15:24 PM
Ford, Nissan and Tesla Motors are the first beneficiaries of a $25 billion U.S. Department of Energy loan program to help car makers revamp factories to produce advanced-technology vehicles.
Nissan Motor Co. was granted $1.6 billion in loans to make more than 100,000 electric cars a year at its plant in Smyrna, Tenn., by 2013. Ford Motor Co. will use $5.9 billion in loans to help retool plants in Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio to produce 13 fuel-efficient models, including 5,000 to 10,000 electric ones a year starting in 2011.
Tesla Motors, a California start-up that makes a $109,000 electric sports car, gained approval for a $465 million loan to develop an affordable family sedan.
Electric vehicles run entirely on battery power for a certain number of miles before they need to be recharged or, in the case of some designs, supplemented by a gasoline engine. General Motors plans to launch the Volt electric vehicle by the end of 2010 while
Chrysler is developing several electric vehicles, and has started providing a small test fleet of battery-powered minivans to the U.S. Postal Service. Both firms are negotiating Energy Department loans for these and other advanced-technology vehicles
Nissan make electric cars and the lithium ion batteries to power them at its Tennessee plant, CEO Carlos Ghosn told reporters after the company's annual shareholders meeting Tuesday in Japan. Dow Jones News Service quotes Dominique Thormann, senior vice president for administration and finance at Nissan North America, as saying U.S. production of an all-electric, five-passenger sedan could total up to 150,000 cars a year when the build-out at the Smyrna plant is complete.
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Nissan, are you kidding me?
RICHARD HERALD - 6/24/2009 5:31:56 PM EDT
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