WSJ To Tesla: Cast Aside Corporate Welfare To Improve Image
Despite its visions of having a valuation on par with Apple within a decade, Tesla’s subsistence on subsidies may be hard for some to swallow.
The Wall Street Journal said as much in an opinion piece following Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s proclamation to grow his company 50 percent annually, with a stock valuation of $700 billion to come in 10 years’ time; the company is currently valued at $27 billion. The publication points out that its $108 million loss in Q4 2014 — thought to be linked to delivery issues, a strong dollar and manufacturing issues — would have been much worse had it not taken $86 million from selling federal carbon credits that quarter.
Continuing with the train of thought, WSJ noted those credits were the result of Tesla’s lineup falling in line with federal and state fuel-efficiency and ZEV mandates, the surplus of said credits being sold to other automakers whose own lineups may be lacking in the green department. In 2014 alone, Tesla sold $216 million in credits, matching 7 percent of what the company sold in EVs.
Other points noted include the $1.5 billion in tax breaks bestowed upon the automaker in its native California and in Nevada, where its Gigafactory battery-pack production facility, as well as the $7,500 federal tax rebate consumers receive upon purchasing a Model S. The publication concluded by urging Musk to “turn off the taxpayer tap,” on the premise that by so doing, he and his company would gain more friends “for the long haul,” whomever they may be.
Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.
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Where I live, there are no carbon taxes/credits and no consumer credits for buying EVs. Not a one. And the result is - no sales whatsoever of these vehicles. They are only made semi-viable in other markets by subsidy from government. If that isn't reality, I don't know what is. Lashing up an electric motor in a vehicle is hardly rocket science. Back yard weirdos have been doing it for a hundred years, and getting pictures of their smiling mugs in the pages of Popular Science standing next to their bent-tin wonders. Whoop de doo. If you, Mr. Entrepreneur, dream up some business that is only profitable by the presence of external public subsidies, or open up a fast food restaurant that is only profitable by paying workers minimum wage, you have one piss poor business plan. It works only when you leach your prosperity from the backs of everyone else's efforts. The EV owners also pay no road tax, buy power at basically wholesale rates with no taxes and thus sponge off the rest of us. How is this good policy? It isn't. It is the same old story of attempted monopoly to fill the coffers of the scammers who thought it up. I agree with Pch101. Something like energy storage systems that benefit one and all are what public funds should be spent on. Picking some area of the economy and futzing around with the natural way of doing things benefits only those who ratio nalize in their own minds what wonderful forward-thinking people they are. From there it's only a short step to believing your own BS as some inviolable truth. $700 billion worth of fairy blossom fluff.
Where I live, there are no carbon taxes/credits and no consumer credits for buying EVs. Not a one. And the result is - no sales whatsoever of these vehicles. They are only made semi-viable in other markets by subsidy from government. If that isn't reality, I don't know what is. Lashing up an electric motor in a vehicle is hardly rocket science. Back yard weirdos have been doing it for a hundred years, and getting pictures of their smiling mugs in the pages of Popular Science standing next to their bent-tin wonders. Whoop de doo. If you, Mr. Entrepreneur, dream up some business that is only profitable by the presence of external public subsidies, or open up a fast food restaurant that is only profitable by paying workers minimum wage, you have one piss poor business plan. It works only when you leach your prosperity from the backs of everyone else's efforts. The EV owners also pay no road tax, buy power at basically wholesale rates with no taxes and thus sponge off the rest of us. How is this good policy? It isn't. It is the same old story of attempted monopoly to fill the coffers of the scammers who thought it up. I agree with Pch101. Something like energy storage systems that benefit one and all are what public funds should be spent on. Picking some area of the economy and futzing around with the natural way of doing things benefits only those who rationalize in their own minds what wonderful forward-thinking people they are. From there it's only a short step to believing your own BS as some inviolable truth. $700 billion worth of future fairy blossom fluff.
Too bad we don't have a thumbs up/thumbs down option for the comments on TTAC. The common sense shown in the comments refuting the blatant hypocrisy of the WSJ article is refreshing to see. The "corporate welfare" doled out to rice farmers and petroleum companies (as just a couple examples) are simply astounding. The tax credit for a home mortgage has an enormous effect to raise real estate values, but no one bats an eye at that one, no matter how much it costs the federal government. It's very easy to knock someone who is innovative, successful and bucking the status quo (especially when being spoon-fed the words by corporate special interests, a la Sara Palin with an earpiece), but how many NYC op-ed writers could put together an entire automobile company, much less a cutting-edge organization such as Tesla? (Answer: Zero!)
I find it amazing how the consumers' (taxpayer) forks out handouts and subsidises businesses that can't exist. Why do we have them, we all wonder why our nations are in deficit. Imagine if money was spent researching how to provide solar panels and batteries on every home. This would remove more pollutants than these waste of money pie in the sky vehicles. Imagine if all of the money wasted by the State and Fed was spent increasing gas pipeline infrastructure to all homes. This would be a benefit to all and not just the road users and these billionaires living off of welfare. Why do we insist on wasting this money.