Tesla Motors paid off its entire Department of Energy loan plus interest which amounted to $465 million, making Tesla "only American car company to have fully repaid the government," the company said in a statement on Thursday.
Tesla's $465 million check came nine years in advance, after the company used some of the roughly $1 billion it raised through a new stock offering last week to pay off the loan, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The Palo Alto-based company won the loan in 2010 under a federal funding program for companies trying to build cleaner cars.
"I would like to thank the Department of Energy and the members of Congress and their staffs that worked hard to create the ATVM program, and particularly the American taxpayer from whom these funds originate," said Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk on Wednesday. "I hope we did you proud."
The loan repayment follows a series of recent announcements from Tesla, including Tesla's first-ever profit, a higher-than-expected sales forecast, a $1 billion fund raising round. The company also said and its Model S sedan earning the highest auto test ratings ever from Consumer Reports.
The Energy Department described Tesla's $465 million repayment as symbolic of the successes of the agency's loan program which received a lot of criticism in the beginning. One of the more prominent critics was Mitt Romney during the presidential debates, when he described Tesla as a "loser" alongside Solyndra and Fisker Automotive.
"When you're talking about cutting-edge clean energy technologies, not every investment will succeed - but today's repayment is the latest indication that the Energy Department's portfolio of more than 30 loans is delivering big results for the American economy while costing far less than anticipated," Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said in a statement Wednesday.
Moniz added that losses from the program represented only about 2 percent of the overall $34 billion portfolio.
"The other 98 percent of the portfolio includes 19 new clean energy power plants that are adding enough solar, wind and geothermal capacity to power a million homes and displace 7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year," he said.
