Tesla's Musk says Obama win means good things for plug-in vehicles

That gift horse? Elon Musk ain't looking it in the mouth.

The Tesla Motors chief appears to be pretty happy about last week's presidential election results, saying that four more years of President Barack Obama likely means more electric vehicle (EV) production,Reuters reports. More newsworthy, Musk also said that the first East Coast Superchargers will soon be installed in Washington, DC and Boston.

Musk added that, unsurprisingly, he'd support raising the federal tax credits for EVs to as much as $10,000 per vehicle. That's about a tenth of the pricetag of a top-of-the-line Tesla Model S sedan, which just wonMotor Trend magazine's 2013 Car of the Year Award. Obama previously suggested the $10,000 level, which would represent an increase of $2,500 to the maximum tax credit currently allowed.

EV production subsidies were a hot topic leading up to the election, with Republican candidate Mitt Romney taking aim at US Energy Department (DOE) loans to companies like Tesla, Fisker and Ford. Tesla received a $465-million DOE loan in 2010.

Not to merely rest on federal loans, Tesla said last month that it will get $10 million from the state of California to upgrade its San Francisco Bay Area factory for Tesla's Model X crossover, which is slated to start production in 2014.



Source: Autoblog Green