Another Iceberg, Right Ahead 232
long ago.”^440
The New York Timescolumnist, Randall Stross, wanted
to rename the loan program to “The Bailout of Very, Very
High-Net-Worth Individuals Who Invested in Tesla Motors
Act.” The reason why everyone thought this loan would
become yet another bailout of the rich was that the gov-
ernment announced it at the same time as they announced
the bailout of the other companies. But in reality, the loan
was initialized in 2007, before the financial crisis had begun
sweeping in.^54 The goal of the loan program was to acceler-
ate the production of fuel-efficient vehicles for mainstream
Americans and reduce the nation’s dependency on oil.^275
While Ford got a $5.9 billion loan from DOE, Tesla got
a $465 million loan. Tesla used the money to accelerate
the progress of Model S and to build a production facility
for electric powertrains. Each company applying for the
loan had to prove it had a viable business, thus General
Motors failed to get it. Tesla, Ford, and Nissan were the only
companies that got it.^54 But Tesla didn’t need the loan from
DOE to survive. “There’s a lot of misinformation out there,”
Elon said. “We’ll be profitable in July, and we’re already
cash-flow positive. We would not need the loan to survive.
Randy Stross is a huge douche bag and an idiot. What is
he doing picking on an electric car company? Why would
he pick on the little guy who is trying to do good when
you’ve got egregious waste of money in the tens of billions
occurring in Detroit?”223,231
“Douche bag” is a common word in Elon’s vocabulary.
Elon prepared himself before an interview with the televi-