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Oprah's chin support buys 100th Tesla Roadster

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The night that Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech in Chicago's Grant Park, the cameras caught Oprah Winfrey pondering the historical significance of the moment while leaning on some guy's shoulder like she owned it. The man turned out to be Sam Perry, who later appeared on Oprah's TV show after the fact got out that she had no idea who he was at the time. The image above was the picture perfect Kodak moment of racism being fixed in this country that everyone wanted to believe.

Turns out, it's also a great way to sell battery-powered sports cars! Sam Perry is reportedly a wealthy Silicon Valley consultant, which further explains his presence in the VIP section that next night to Oprah. Sam has bought the 100th Tesla Roadster to be sold, and the House that Musk built (along with Eberhard) isn't going to let the occasion go unnoticed.

In fact, Tesla is currently making its case for a small slice of $25 billion in government loans that have already been approved to help the Detroit 3 retool for greener vehicles. It only wants a grand total of $650 million, which would go towards developing its next all-electric model, producing more batteries, expanding its drivetrain business and, according to Debbie Schlussel, drop the price of the Roadster from $109,000 to just $57,000. She also argues that Tesla is using Mr. Perry's connection to Oprah and her connection to the President Elect to get the money. That would be the long shot of long shots, but in the meantime, kudos to Tesla for making it to 100 units sold.


[Source: AutoblogGreen, Debbieschlussel.com]

Oprah's chin support buys 100th Tesla Roadster originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tesla needs government loans to produce Model S on time

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Detroit isn't the only place in the U.S. where struggling automakers are looking for government handouts. Tesla Motors, Silicon Valley's one and only auto manufacturer, is looking for an initial injection from the government of $350 million, which is slated to fund the development and necessary manufacturing facilities for its upcoming Model S sedan with another $200 million to produce lithium-ion batteries plus $100 million to expand its growing drivetrain business. It's still early, but we're pretty sure that equals a cool $650 mil.

Like the $15 billion that the Detroit 3 are still hoping to get within the next few days, Tesla's $650 million would come from the $25 billion investment in green technology that Congress has already approved for American automakers. Without this infusion of capital, Tesla Motors' CEO Elon Musk claims that its battery-powered sedan, which is expected to bow sometime next year on conceptual form, will be delayed by a few years until the economy recovers and more capital investment can be raised on its own.

[Sources: Detroit Free Press, Bloomberg, Photo by Vince Bucci/Getty]

Tesla needs government loans to produce Model S on time originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jason Calacanis moves up the Tesla delivery waiting line to #16, may give away car

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The erstwhile and undisputed co-founder of Weblogs Inc. (parent of this here site), Jason Calacanis, revealed some time ago that he had placed an order for a Tesla Roadster. At the time he had missed out on the opportunity to purchase one of the first 100 Signature series cars. Those are the cars that come after the 25 Founders series cars. The buyers of the Signature series cars had to pay up in full in advance. Following Jason's recent opportunity to borrow Chairman Elon Musk's #1 Roadster, Jason evidently decided he couldn't wait until 2009. Fortunately for Jason, venture capitalist Ray Lane gave up his spot in the sequence since Lane's firm, Kleiner Perkins, is an investor in rival start up Fisker Automotive. Tesla offered Lane's slot to Calacanis, who obviously grabbed the opportunity. According to Tesla VP Darryl Siry, a couple of other signature series slots have changed hands including one that was recently snapped up by Matt Damon.

Calacanis is scheduled to get car #16 in the signature series which is #41 overall. According to Siry, the switchover to the new powertrain is now scheduled to occur at around car #38, so Jason's car should come properly equipped and shouldn't require an upgrade. Since departing from Weblogs Inc. Jason has also done some venture capital work with Sequioa Capital and started another new company called Mahalo. Mahalo is described as a human powered search engine that uses an editorial staff to create a directory of what they consider the best of the web. Once he does get his Roadster, Jason is considering actually giving it away on Mahalo as a promotion for the site. Stay tuned for more info on that.

[Source: Jason Calacanis]

 



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