'Tesla Always Pays Its Debts,' Says Elon Musk As The Company Pays Back China Loan Early

At the end of 2019, Tesla Inc TSLA acquired a loan from several Chinese banks for the construction of Gigafactory Shanghai. Tesla used this debt to roll forward previous debts, along with paying for the construction of Tesla's then newest factory.

Now as covered by Clean Technica, Tesla has fully repaid its debts early. This was found on Tesla's second-quarter 2021 balance sheet, which no longer shows the loan.

The China Loan facility had shown a balance of $1,462 million on 30 June 2021 pic.twitter.com/1sGF2WzAds

— JPR007 (@jpr007) October 4, 2021

In response to this, CEO Elon Musk tweeted "Tesla always pays its debts." This is most likely also in reference to the U.S. Department of Energy loan the company paid back nine years early in 2013, stating at the time on Twitter TWTR that Tesla is the "Only American car company to have paid back government." 

The even more impressive part of this story is that the loan was repaid solely from activities of the Shanghai factory, even as construction and expansion of the factory continued.

Tesla's margin is one of the most impressive in the auto industry, which is up to 26.5%, leading the industry. 

Photo: Gigafactory Shanghai courtesy of Tesla