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Tesla pays off its government loans

Tesla paid off the last of its $465 million government loans May 22, nine years ahead of schedule, thus outperforming most U.S. college graduates and the vast majority of American homeowners. Tesla used funds from a stock offering to finish the loan with a whopping bank transfer of $451.8 million Wednesday, pointing out that it was “…the only American car company to have fully repaid the government.” Apparently no one at Tesla was even born when Lee Iacocca paid off Chrysler's $1.2-billion government bailout ahead of schedule back in 1983.

Future products: U.S. model is VW's big news

An ambitious plan to increase Volkswagen brand sales in the United States to 800,000 by 2018--up from 213,454 last year--begins with a mid-sized sedan to be built starting early next year in Chattanooga, Tenn. Later, the new factory will add the Polo small car or a mid-sized SUV--possibly both. Here is a rundown of VW's product plans through 2013.

McLaren Special Operations (MSO) P1 and 650 S Spider Pebble Beach debut

The McLaren P1 MSO (pictured) will debut at Pebble Beach 2014 It may be Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations in the news at the moment, but McLaren’s own Special Operations has been around since 2011, creating extreme examples of McLaren’s cars for deep-pocketed customers. And they’re back with two new MSO specials for this month’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The most impressive of the two MSO cars is, of course, a special edition of the already very special McLaren P1.