Tesla reportedly snags some funding from GE (updated)

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This isn’t fully offiical just yet, but a recently leaked Car and Driver interview with Tesla CEO Elon Musk looks to have all but confirmed that the company received some funding from GE Capital as part of its current $40 million haul. While the exact amount GE has invested isn’t clear, the company is apparently the second-largest investor in this round of financing, behind only Musk himself. As you’re no doubt aware, this is on top of the $350 million in loans that Tesla is apparently close to securing from the U.S. government, which isn’t exactly enough for it to rest easy given its ambitions, but is at least slightly encouging for folks itching to get behind the wheel of a Model S. Musk even goes one step further in an attempt to assure potential customers in the interview, saying that “even in the worst case of an Armageddon scenario, I’ll personally refund people [their money] if need be,” adding quickly that he thinks there’s “very little danger of that.”

Update:
According to Earth2Tech, this deal is off the table… and may have never been on it to begin with. GE Capital apparently was “closely watching” Tesla, but there had been no official deal. When the site reached out to Tesla, here’s what they had to say:
GE had committed to invest in Tesla and sent an e-mail confirming the investment, but GE backed out on the day it was supposed to wire funds to Tesla. The decision came after GE went into company-wide capital conservation mode.

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Tesla reportedly snags some funding from GE (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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