

Musk only needs half the time given to pay loan



President Obama and Elon Musk


Source: Technology Review

Comments     Threshold


RE: Great photo
By m51 on 2/28/2013 1:49:35 PM , Rating: 2
I believe automobiles were also called 'Toys for the Rich' back when Henry Ford wanted to bring out his Model T.

It's not about a car, it's about an industry.

RE: Great photo
By Reclaimer77 on 2/28/2013 4:04:23 PM , Rating: 2
And Henry Ford got millions in loans from the Government's green energy grant??

Great analogy, MORON. Do you even understand the argument? If Tesla used his considerable funds for this venture, or sought private investments, I wouldn't be saying a WORD about it.

RE: Great photo
By Solandri on 2/28/2013 4:57:36 PM , Rating: 2
Society in Henry Ford's day and time wasn't facing an impending horse feed shortage.

Whether you believe oil has passed peak production, or that we still have 50-100 years left until peak production, everyone's agreed that at some point it's going to run out. Gradually, but the price will gradually increase in the meantime.

If you rely totally on market forces, there's a time delay between when oil prices go up, research in alternatives begins, and the technology finally comes to market. All the while you're paying exorbitantly high oil prices to keep your industrial engine running.

If you instead pre-research those technologies before market forces would naturally kick in that research, you can speed up and ease that transition period. I view government loans for EV research as insurance. Maybe it'll pay out, maybe it won't. But I'll sleep better knowing we have a plan in place instead of waiting until the last minute to tackle it. Likewise, if the average corporate R&D plan had a 10-20 year timeline, I'd feel comfortable letting private industry handle it. But most corporate planning has a 1-3 year timeline. I don't think that's long enough to ensure a smooth transition from oil to some other transportation power source.

Note: I think EVs are a dead end, and that biofuels will win out in the end. Unless we start building nuclear plants out the wazoo for electrical power or there's a breakthrough in nuclear fusion. But R&D spending always carries with it the risk that you won't get anything useful out of it. The companies which abandon R&D for guaranteed profitability usually do pretty poorly, like HP. So even though R&D is a gamble, it's usually a good bet to take. Even if EVs turn out to be a bust, some of the improvements in battery tech should spill over into batteries for mobile devices, so some of the cost will still be recouped.

RE: Great photo
Electrical power is not the limitation.


RE: Great photo
By Rukkian on 3/1/2013 9:39:16 AM , Rating: 2
But most corporate planning has a 1-3 year timeline.

Actually with everybody seemingly only in for a quick buck in the stock market, many seem to only have a 3-6 month outlook, and are willing to forget any sort of long term goals for the quick buck to make the stock uptick a few points.

