US to loan billions to Ford, Nissan for fuel economy

WASHINGTON: The US government will loan 5.9 billion dollars to Ford Motor Co. and 1.6 billion dollars to Japanese automaker Nissan to invest in improving the fuel economy of their US-built vehicles, officials said Tuesday.

The loans are the first awarded out of a 25-billion-dollar program to help automakers upcoming fuel efficiency standards, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said at a press conference.

"I'm pleased to announce eight billion in provisional loan agreements that will drive innovation in fuel efficiency and help revolutionize the automobile industry in America," Chu said.

"These loans will help the auto industry meet and even exceed the president's tough new fuel standards while creating jobs reducing our dependency on foreign oil and ensuring America's competitiveness."

Another 465 million dollars will be loaned to electric sports car maker Telsa.

"The Ford Motor Co, an American icon will be awarded 5.9 billion dollars in loans so the American workers can raise the efficiency of more than a dozen popular models," Chu said.



"Ford will transform more than 35,000 jobs into green engineering and manufacturing jobs."

The loans will allow Ford to update factories in five US states, Chu said. Nissan will use the loans to make improvements to its Tennessee plant.

With this loan, "Nissan expects to cut the costs of its batteries in half and ramp up production of 150,000 American-made competitively priced electric vehicles annually," Chu said.