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Musk says New York Times debacle may have cost Tesla $100 million

Despite the old chestnut that there's no such thing as bad publicity, there's always a cost incurred - sometimes it's hidden, and sometimes it's front and center. Enigmatic Tesla CEO Elon Musk seems to think his company's now-infamous Model S range dustup with The New York Times is falling squarely into the latter category. According to Musk, fallout from the back-and-forth battle over the newspaper's cold-weather road trip story may have decimated Tesla's stock value by as much as $100 million. Musk believes the report resulted in a lot of cancelled orders, probably costing Tesla "a few hundred" Model S purchases.
According to the report, Tesla's shares have tumbled some 12 percent (going from $39.24 to $34.38) since the report was published. Bloomberg further notes that the company's market capitalization has skidded by around $553 million over that same period. With the company's stock-market value pegged at $3.91 billion, $100m represents a not insignificant chunk of money to Tesla.
So how does Musk feel about embattled Times writer John Broder, whose controversial report he previously called "fake"? During the interview with Bloomberg TV, which you can watch below, Musk opines, "I don't think it should be the end of his career - I don't even think necessarily he should be fired - but I do think he fudged an article." No word has surfaced about any actions taken against Broder after his boss admitted he did "not especially" exercise "good judgement" in the course of his reporting.

Panasonic not sure about Tesla Gigafactory commitment; Texas dealers wary, too

Just about the entire US southwest is ready to jump into the financial bed with Tesla Motors as the electric-vehicle maker looks for a place to put its massive "gigafactory." But lithium-ion battery maker Panasonic? Not so much, says Bloomberg News. Panasonic President Kazuhiro Tsuga spoke to a group of reporters in Tokyo and said he strategically understood the need for Tesla to go large-scale with its factory production, especially as it prepares to debut an SUV as well as a model that will be priced at about half of what a Model S costs. But, he added cautiously, there will be significant risk involved in the investment and his company hasn't committed to its involvement just yet. Texas dealers are already sounding the alarm against changing franchise laws to woo the battery plant. Panasonic or not, Tesla is taking the "go big or go home" approach to a factory that it says will cost about $5 billion ($2 billion already committed from Tesla itself) and may support 6,500 jobs. That latter point has states such as Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas tripping over themselves to figure out the financial incentives necessary to be the further production base for California-based Tesla. Texas auto dealers are already sounding the alarm against changing the state's franchise laws to woo the automaker's battery plant. An open letter sent by the Texas Automobile Dealers Association says it does not believe, "that economic development efforts to bring any business to Texas should in any way be connected to changing established laws in Texas for the singular benefit of any one company. ... We believe this sets a bad precedent for future economic development efforts by linking them to special interest changes in law." Last fall, Tesla expanded its battery-production agreement with Panasonic, saying at the time that Panasonic would provide almost 2 million automotive-grade battery cells for the Model S and Model X during the next four years.

Five years ago, the DOE loaned Tesla Motors $465 million

*This post has been updated to reflect the nature of the new funding. Five years ago this week, the US Department of Energy finished the paperwork on its Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) loan to Tesla Motors. Despite a lot of controversy about that program, Tesla managed to pay back the $465 million loan early and with interest. The DOE made four other loans under the ATVM program – to Ford, Nissan, Fisker and a small startup, VPG, that wanted to make natural gas powered vehicles for people in wheelchairs. Ford and Nissan are paying the money back, Fisker and VPG are not. Speaking at the Washington Auto Show this week, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said that while the two loans "did not fully perform," the portfolio overall is doing well. Even the vehicle that VPG was going to make is still moving forward because another company stepped in. That's why Moniz was proud to discuss details of a separate funding program that will hand out over $55 million for what the DOE calls, "cutting-edge vehicle technologies that strengthen the clean energy economy." Moniz said the new money – as well as a separate $35-million funding program that will be available in February – will be used for improved batteries and other electrification technologies, lightweight materials and better engines for both light- and heavy-duty vehicles. One thing Moniz singled out was a way to make recharging an EV even easier. "This is directly supporting our EV Everywhere Grand Challenge," he said. The Secretary joked that the manager of the new funds has just had a baby, so anyone who wants some of the money should apply soon, while he's still groggy. "Our goal is to help establish these industries and help them grow," Moniz said, adding that the DOE may emphasize private partnerships in handing out the new loans. The two consequences of that would be to increase the amount of money available and also that, "we think there is an advantage in bringing more lenders and more banks to have experience in terms of getting into debt financing across this whole spectrum of technologies." Moniz said that the US government is handing out all of this money on generous terms.