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By John O'Dell, Senior Editor 



Tesla Motors' hopes for a $400 million-plus headquarters, electric-car assembly and battery manufacturing complex in the heart of California's Silicon Valley seem to fading.


The company, which first floated the idea in September, when it thought it could raise the money though private investment, became dependent on federal low-cost loan guarantees when the global economy began melting down and venture funding evaporated.


"We abandoned venture capital and instead focused on ... federal loans," said Tesla spokeswoman Rachel Konrad.


But after applying for a federal loan guarantee from the government's $25 billion auto industry green-tech fund, Tesla discovered that the ground rules gave preference to plans that would rehabilitate existing factories rather than to those, such as Tesla's, that called for new construction.


As a result, Konrad told Green Car Advisor, the company has notified the feds that it is quite willing to use the proceeds of federal loans to acquire and retrofit old computer chip facilities in the San Fransisco Bay area (which includes the Silicon Valley) and abandoned aerospace plants in Southern California.
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Tags: Plug-ins and Electric, Tesla, Electric Vehicles, Federal Auto Industry Loans, Tesla Motors

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Tesla Modifying Ambitious Factory Plans As Competition for Federal $$ Grows was originally published by Green Car Advisor. Read the full story by clicking here.