Deja Vu? Tesla CEO Took Private Jet to Washington D.C. To Ask For Money

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has flown his private jet to Washington at least 12 times since the beginning of last year—just months after Congress chastised the CEOs of GM, Chrysler and Ford for flying private jets to request public financing.

FAA records collected by FlightAware.com show that Musk’s jet, a Dassault Falcon 900, touched down in Washington June 15, 2009 – one week before the electric car maker won a guaranteed $465 million loan from the Department of Energy. Two weeks before that, Tesla began paying for the jet’s operating expenses. This worked out to $175,000 in costs for the final six months of 2009, according to a recent registration statement with the SEC (Tesla is planning to raise $100 million via an IPO).

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thstone - 2/12/2010 6:22:13 PM

+2 Boost

Tesla is a joke. They've sold what? 2,000 cars. Ever. Someone call me when they sell ten times that. Per year. Then we'll listent to what they are doing and why.

delan - 2/14/2010 9:21:38 AM

+1 Boost

Good Lord, your spelling is atrocious. Anyhow, I thought Tesla was ringing in the wave of the future. Who knew they were in trouble.

pathosbedlam - 6/11/2010 1:54:10 PM

+1 Boost

Anyone who can say we don't need an alternative to our gas guzzling cars and trucks is a fucking moron. Whether it happens in the next 20 years or the next 100 years, eventually the fuel we run them on now will run out, and then all that's left is wind, h2o, solar or un-proven over-unity generator devices I have seen. As much as people like to poke fun at new-comers to any industry, at least a Tesla car will still work when the fuel runs out. And if your making the power from solar or hydro or wind or geo-thermal, then you can still get to work of a morning in relative comfort. And after-all, that's all we really do with petrol each day. Wake up people, your all a bunch of mushrooms. Kept in the dark and fed a load of bullshit.