Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) isn’t doing as badly as some think, apparently. The Raw Story pointed to an egregious error made on the O’Reilly Factor. Host Bill O’Reilly said Tesla Motors posted $523 million in losses. Unfortunately however, that number apparently had some dust on it.
He was actually talking about the Energy Department’s clean-energy loan program, which has invested billions in companies making green products. Tesla Motors did receive a $465 million loan under the program, and it was losing money hand over fist a couple of years ago, but things are apparently turning around at the automaker. The company’s 8K filing earlier this month indicated that it’s on track to post its first ever profit in the first quarter of fiscal 2013.
O’Reilly is certainly right that many of the companies which received money through the program are in deep trouble financially. Most recently, Fisker Automotive received money under the program and had to lay off 75 percent of its workforce late last week in an attempt to avoid bankruptcy.
The Raw Deal reports that the $523 million in losses the company posted was actually from 2011 when Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) had stopped producing its roadster and was working on the Model S. The most recent figure from the company was a GAAP net loss of $90 million—far less than the amount O’Reilly said it had posted recently. That number came from the company’s February shareholder letter.
At the moment of this writing, shares of Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) had gained 2.4 percent on their price at opening bell.
