Tesla Motors will not be able to bring the Model S electric saloon to the market unless it gets government funding, CEO Elon Musk has admitted.
"We can't move forward with that without a major amount of capital," Musk told the Detroit Free Press.
"If we don't get any government funding, then what we need to do is wait until the capital markets recover, which could be a year or two years from now."
Tesla is trying to secure $400 million of federal funding from the bailout money reserved to help Detroit’s Big Three develop more fuel-efficient models.
The fledgling electric car-maker had previously insisted that it had very secure finances, despite laying off tens of workers in recent months.
With the aid, Elon Musk – who made his millions from PayPal – claimed Tesla could be selling 20,000 examples of the Model S per annum by 2011.
