Just after recently paying off its near half a billion dollar loan from the U.S. Energy Department, Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk has announced the company plans to create a new entry-level electric sedan in the coming years.
When initially speaking about the achievement of paying off its excessive loan, Musk said “I do feel as if it’s a weight off our chest. We did get criticized quite a lot for taking government funding, even though during the first several years Tesla was privately funded — mostly from me. I put my last money into Tesla in late 2008 just to keep the company alive.”
With that officially out of the way, Tesla can now begin to look at how to expand its current electric car line-up into the future, and according to Musk, creating an affordable electric car for the masses is a likely prospect in the company’s future.
When discussing the possibility, Musk said “With the Model S, you have a compelling car that’s too expensive for most people,” he said. “And you have the Leaf, which is cheap, but it’s not great. What the world really needs is a great, affordable electric car. I’m not going to let anything go, no matter what people offer, until I complete that mission.”
[Via Bloomberg]
