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Re:Tesla Repays Department of Energy Loan Nine Years Early by tptacek on Thursday May 23, 2013 @12:23AM (#5755340)
I didn't read this comment nearly as negatively as you seemed to have.
Re:Tesla Repays Department of Energy Loan Nine Years Early by ghshephard on Thursday May 23, 2013 @01:24AM (#5755488)
It was a gut reaction to the "PR ploy to Pump" phrasing - which made TSLA sound like some kind of boiler-room operation engaging in shady behavior. Also, it would have been nice to come to HN and see the top rated article on TSLA calling out all the positives, rather than focussing no the Debt, Dilution, Loss that TSLA is experiencing.

It's important to take time to celebrate victories, ours, and the people/organizations we look up to.

Re:Tesla Repays Department of Energy Loan Nine Years Early by tptacek on Thursday May 23, 2013 @01:31AM (#5755501)
Facts about debt, dilution, and loss are extremely interesting and relevant to the story. Moreover, it seems like the worst thing he had to say about TSLA is that they're very good at marketing. Which is pretty important for a car company.

The HN problem is with middlebrow dismissals at the top of threads. I'd submit that the comment at the top of this one is neither "middlebrow" nor dismissive.

Re:Tesla Repays Department of Energy Loan Nine Years Early by larrys on Thursday May 23, 2013 @01:02PM (#5757939)
"gut reaction to the "PR ploy to Pump" phrasing"

Without agreeing or disagreeing that it was a ploy or not I will say that my gut to "Pr ploy" is actually positive since success with PR is an essential ingredient to success overall. I don't look down up it in any negative sense at all.

Re:Tesla Repays Department of Energy Loan Nine Years Early by mempko on Thursday May 23, 2013 @11:37AM (#5757413)
Tesla takes money out of people's pockets (the tax payers)and gives rich people fancy cars to drive. Not sure how to celebrate that...

They payed back their loan to the tax payers by taking out a loan from someone else, not by selling a car at a profit and making a successful product.

Re:Tesla Repays Department of Energy Loan Nine Years Early by tptacek on Thursday May 23, 2013 @12:14PM (#5757652)
Thank you for providing an actual middlebrow dismissal for comparative purposes.
Re:Tesla Repays Department of Energy Loan Nine Years Early by vpeters25 on Thursday May 23, 2013 @03:21PM (#5758883)
I think they took a loan guarantee from DOE because nobody else was lending money back then and they needed funding to develop the Model S.
Re:Tesla Repays Department of Energy Loan Nine Years Early by dnautics on Thursday May 23, 2013 @07:58PM (#5760353)
If my memory serves me right, they didn't need that funding to develop the Model S, they just took it to make the whole process a little bit less risky.