Manny Lopez

Tesla loan does not add up

The redistribution of your tax dollars to others, including Corporate America, isn't something you can figure out no matter how hard you try.

And honestly, you shouldn't try because it will just make your head hurt and infuriate if you're paying attention.

Take the U.S. government's most recent doling out of cash to the car companies. It made available $5.9 billion to Ford Motor Co; $1.6 billion to Nissan Motor Co.; and $465 million to Tesla Motors Inc. so all three companies could retool plants and help fund the development and production of more fuel efficient vehicles.

Given that Congress has mandated fuel rules that require billions to meet the standard, this is drop in the bucket funding for the major automakers that have been building cars and trucks in the U.S. for decades -- but it's an all-out gift to Tesla, the Silicon Valley startup that makes cars for the rich and famous.

Ford in need of loans

Ford CEO Alan Mulally pumped his fists and cheered repeatedly -- as he's wont to do -- at an event Tuesday with Energy Secretary Steven Chu when the loans were announced. Ford needs this money desperately to help it steer clear of the bankruptcy path its crosstown rivals have taken. There's merit to the investment it will make in a dozen factories to build more gas sippers (though there are still gaping holes in their alleged market demand). Nissan will use its money to produce electric cars and battery packs at its manufacturing complex in Smyrna, Tenn. Never mind that Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker was one of the staunchest opponents of federal aid to the auto companies.

But the real smack in the face in all this is the cash for Tesla, a company that makes cars for the super rich.

Tesla loan is curious

It's no coincidence that the California company was awarded loans. It has friends in Congress who are making decisions without regard to facts and figures.

If Tesla used the money purely to build its Roadster, it could produce another 5,300 or so, putting it just ahead of Maserati and Ferrari for full-year sales assuming it could sell all those Roadsters in a year.

Tesla has reportedly sold a few hundred Roadsters with a price tag of $109,000, and most of us will never get behind the wheel of one. Nor will we see its "cheaper" Model S gaining any real market share.

I'm sure these are fun cars to drive and the Roadster reportedly gets 244 miles per charge.

But that's not how our dollars should be spent, propping up millionaires and billionaires, who, unlike their Detroit CEO brethren, fly in private planes when they're not toying around town in their electric cars.

mlopez@detnews.com (313) 222-2536 Auto Editor Manny Lopez's column runs Thursday.