Tesla opposes using advanced vehicle fund for Detroit bailout

When the Detroit automakers went to Washington to press their case for financial assistance to get through their current cash crunch, the hope was to get $25 billion from the $700 billion fund that was set up to bail out Wall Street. The Bush administration was having none of that however, and by the time the CEOs headed home, the only idea that was getting any traction was to free up the money that had been set aside in the 2007 Energy Bill to fund development of more efficient cars. The Detroit 3 however, were not the only ones eyeing that pot of money. Tesla Motors is just one of groups applying for low interest loans from what is known as the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Incentive Program (AVTM) fund. In a new post on the Tesla Motors blog, Vice President of Business Development Diarmuid O'Connell doesn't express an opinion one way or the other on whether Congress should help Detroit. However, he does make it clear that the Silicon Valley EV company doesn't believe the AVTM fund should be used as the source of the bailout. The same finance market issues that have put the Detroit companies in jeopardy have hurt Tesla's plans to raise cash to pay for new manufacturing facilities and development of new vehicles. Tesla needs a piece of that pie.

[Source: Tesla Motors]