Is Tesla the One Automaker the Government Should Consider Bailing Out?

jp, Don't you mean shame on the U. S. government? But anyway, check out the wiki site above if you honestly think GM didn't try. When a government requires that one lose money then either one loses money or one goes out of business? OR one sells big trucks which make lots of money to offset the losses from selling little bitty mandated cars that lose money. CAFE requirements require GM to make small cars that lose money. So, GM has cut it's hourly rate for new hires to below 15 dollars an hour. In a couple of years they will be making money on small cars.

HELL NO!!! Shame on you for even thinking of asking for government money!

the article states that this bailout is not for their sports car program it's for a mass produced commuter car. Jeez people, READING COMPREHENSION!!!!! Or are ya'll in too big a hurry to open yer trap and details be damned.

Give Aptera some funding. They have a car that gets 300 mpg. Around $30,000. And an all electric in the high $20K's.

Ok heres what I have noticed most of you guys say its the big threes fault for building gas guzzler trucks and suvs the whole time did any of you forget the reason why they built them is because thats what the public wanted .If you noticed after that trend started the japenese and european companies started building them as well .Look at how big the toyota tundra is toyota never built vehicles that large till the big three had sucess with them ,also if you recall for a period of the late 90s up to 2007 most of what you saw on the road was large suvs and trucks there was one time i went to the grocery store 10 miles away and saw one car the rest all suvs,trucks and by the way i live in the denver area and it was rush hour! The big three built what we wanted then toyota and nissan started building them too NO ONE predicted the gas prices the jump to 4 bucks a gallon and if that would of never happened ALL YOU GUYS would still be buying the gas guzzlers.As far as quality difference are american stuff is just as good but thats ok continue to buy that jap crap perhaps you people wont be happy till we have no american companies anymore and we depend on china and japan for everything!!!!!!The big three will turn around if we support then do you think japan would let honda or toyota go broke most likely not !!!!!YOUR AN AMERICAN SUPPORT AMERICAN !!!!!!!!! KEEP THE BIG 3 ALIVE AND WELL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bail-outs only extend the pain! Have we not learned anything from history? Didn't we already bail out Chrysler once? Wow, big shock they are in trouble again! Grab and rip the ban-aid! Keep the private companies private, sink or swim baby! Let the CEO's see what it's like to have no golden Parachute and be unemployed.

Bring back the $2999 Yugo!

First GM, Ford, etc and the unions which bleed the companies shoul not be given a single penny. Maybe create a loan program with preffered shares for specific companies which are focussing of next generation technolgies. Sure a lot of them will fail, but eventually one of them will suceed in bringin a cost effective vehicle. All said and done the sad part is forget hybrids, etc EVEN if the buying patterns shift from the SUV's towards fuel efficient cars like Corrolas, Civics, etc there would be a significant reduction in US fuel demand.

It is all about efficient use of energy. Electric cars might as well be burning the coal out of the tail pipe. 50% of electricity in America comes from coal, which must first travel on trains to the Power Plants. One huge train of coal every 7 minutes makes it's way to deliver this GREEN solution. I think some of the misinformed are spending time with the wrong kind of GREEN. I am not going to even bother dignifying the comments about the hobbiests (Telsa?) that modified a Lotus and put a bunch of purchased batteries in the trunk. Hybrid makes the most efficent use of the energy. Most fuel efficient Hybrid SUV is Ford Escape. Most fuel efficient Medium-size Hybrid Sedan is Ford Fusion Hybrid which debuted at the LA auto show. Who is on the cover of Consumer Reports for Highest Reliability? Ford Fusion. NHTSA crash ratings are at the top as well. Okay, your friend told you about a 1998 American car that had an issue. Is this really a basis for major purchasing decisions? It would be bliss if the articles and discussions led to actual learning. A healthy economy is supported by money changing hands rapidly, which creates jobs and growth. It is even better if the money passes through companies with high paying jobs. We all like high paying jobs, last time I checked. It is part of the definition of a leading nation. If the money changes hands once and exits the country then the economy suffers and we lose high paying jobs. It has a domino affect that affects all of your "would be" customer for all of your businesses too. Have some pride and be part of the solution. Did I come off a bit opinionated? I hope I came off a bit educated and informed too.

Any bailout plan should be predicated on freeing up already existing energy saving patents that are owned and have been "allegedly" shelved by energy and auto companies!

jpstud1, the EV-1 was hardly "a winner". It had a severely limited range, could only seat 2, had limited cargo space, cost a fortune to build, and used LEAD acid batteries (oooh, let's taint our groundwater, yippee, that's a winner!) I'm so sick and tired of hearing how great a car it was, and how GM killed it. GM should be lauded for the effort, but they should be lauded even more for realizing they needed to wait 10 years for better battery technology. Truth is, there isn't a single thing the U.S. automakers can do to please the American people who still harbor outdated biases from the 1980's. When GM DOES build a winner, such as the Pontiac Aztek, all people do is nitpick it to death. The public called the Aztek "ugly", yet for some reason choose not to hound the Japense automakers for vehicles such as the Scion XB or the Honda Element, which are far more hideous. Yet the 2005 Aztek outmatches any of the similar 2009 offerings from foreign automakers, in terms of gas mileage, comfort, versatility, cargo capacity, towing, etc. GET OVER YOURSELVES, and look at the REALITY of the auto industry. Ford and GM continue to be technology leaders, as especially evidenced by the upcoming Chevy Volt. The foreign makers are still scrambling trying to figure out how they're going to compete with it. Ironically, the REST of the world understands the quality and performance of the U.S. models, happily buying up what Americans do not, which is a good thing or Ford and GM would already be out of business.

Hybrid is a simple and brilliant concept. Hitting the brakes wastes precious energy. Higher performance gas engines wastes energy. Answer is to harness this wasted energy for better mileage, while mimicking higher performance gas engines. You benefit in the city due the regenerative braking and on the highway because you have a smaller, more efficient gas engine.

Oh, and by the way, no, we shouldn't be "bailing out" Tesla. I wouldn't even be supporting a "bailout" of the Big 3, if it weren't for the number of jobs and businesses that are linked to their continued success. The failure of Tesla would be a mere hiccup in our economy compared to the cardiac arrest of the Big 3 going down. Businesses need to be able to fail, whether it be from poor planning or poor luck. But when our very economy and national supply/production channels are jeopardized, the government is obligated to step in to protect American jobs and our ability to produce goods.

Response to frumpyboy: "if they [GM] could have built them [electric cars] they would have" That is the point of supporting Tesla. GM has established that they will not build electric cars even when given plenty of incentive. As you can see from the wikipedia article that you quoted, it is not about insurmountable technical problems, it is about GMs inability to support the concept of electric cars. Time to give some one less stubborn a chance.

Will all you people touting "HYDROGEN" please do some research. hydrogen is a money wasting, dead end, inefficient, useless, time wasting technology. Electric is the way to go. Our infrastructure is mainly already in place and when solar technology/cost VS Energy costs advances to a level to make it economically practical for average homeowners (which rising demand will do by the way) it will far offset the rising level of coal/natural gas generated energy consumption. lets put a good share of energy production/conservation in our own hands and stop fueling the mega giant energy companies!

stupid. Why would you bailout a company that sells $100K cars. Do they expect them to sell electric cars in affordable ranges that a average american. Very unlikely. There cars are based of a Lotus chassis, so i wouldn't say they were so innovative. I believe the brains behind the original tesla car was fired by the CEO.

Why not help XXXX? That is the problem with bailouts, the line of "worthy" firms is so long, the government should NEVER be in the business of picking winners and losers. The big three bailout is because they are "too big to fail". What the government can and should do is heavily fund the R&D of ALL companies, but of course the republicans slashed government funding and universities all become funded by corporations with their strings attached. Unfortunately, funding research is not a quick fix for anything, it's a long-term approach that works.

what we need is 10,000 or less basic electric car to take the market by storm .so average people could buy them and people who owed less than 10,000 could trade in.while we transformed electric generation to green alternatives.we need a infusion of money in wind and solar and other forms of generations.and if we need auto workers to take less then why don't the bank employees take less and goverment workers too.the workers arnt flying in privet jets.we need alot of cars fast and they have the best chance of doing that.if we got health care in line auto workers or any worker wouldnt need as much.

America has a huge influence over the rest of the world, usually as a positive example of democracy and free enterprise in action. I think there is a historical opportunity to link the problems of climate change and economic meltdown to reduce oil consumption, make the world safer because of that and stimulate new employment growth from clean technologies. I expect any form of government assistance to auto firms is going to be tied to meeting increased fuel economy standards. The big 3 seem capable but unmotivated. Why else would Toyota be "cleaning up" the Hybrid market? America has a burgeoning clean energy industry. The best way to nurture that will be via industry-based incentives that provide all auto makers and innovators with equal opportunities to benefit from helping the USA (and by implication, the whole world) to reduce oil consumption. P.S. coal fired electricity for cars is still dirty, but less dirty than fuel oil once the costs of extraction, refinement and distribution are taken into consideration. At least with electricity you have the option to make it cleaner later - no such choice with the internal combustion engine. I'm not American but decisions made in America definitely affect my life so I hope you didn't mind me weighing in to the discussion.

Has anyone read the whole (though short) article at the top? "Tesla is asking for $400 million to help build out its lower-priced sedan electric cars." I say loan them (Tesla) and other electric/hybrid vehicle manufacturers the money. Lets do away with the petroleum versions. It makes me sick to see the "big three" executives take home millions while the consumers have to spend hundreds (even thousands) of hard-earned dollars to maintain these highly inefficient, petroleum based clunkers. I keep seeing ads that tout 30-32mpg as fuel-efficient... many of thier vehicles have been getting this kind of mileage for years. They can and should do more!