Irish govt. entity invests in Tesla Motors (US)

Dec 1, 2008 Auto Tech

Ireland’s Electricity Supply Board, has invested $20 million in electric car startup Tesla Motors, according to the Irish newspaper, Independent. The investment was made through a clean technology fund managed by VantagePoint Venture Partners. This comes just after an announcement that the Irish government has set out to have electric vehicles make up 10 percent of all cars on its roads by 2020.

The ESB has backed the car through an investment of €15.5m in a €310m clean technology venture capital fund run by US firm Vantage Point Venture Partners, who manage about $4bn of assets.

Tesla Motors is based in California and has been cofounded by Elon Musk, who made his fortune through Paypal. It’s sole model currently is the all electric, $109000 Roadster, that has been designed with help from sportcar makers, Lotus and has a 0-100 kmph time faster than even the Porsche 911. The car maker has been in new recently with problems in raising fresh cash and overshooting timelines in development of its next model, a sedan.

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