Tesla borrowed $465 million in 2010 from the Department of Energy, which was on a ten-year contract, but during an event hosted by Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, Tesla CEO Elun Musk announced his company would pay back the near half-billion-dollar loan five years early.

The loan was meant to be paid back over ten years once the production of the Model S started, with Musk announcing they would accelerate the repayment of their loan, a full five years earlier than required under the original loan terms. Tesla's last payments to the Department of Energy will be in 2017. It's also worth noting that Tesla's $465 million loan wasn't the biggest given out by the DoE, where Ford received $5.9 billion, Nissan with $1.4 billion and Fisker with $529 million.

Musk has an addition to getting things done in a timely manner, getting the Tesla S up and running, rolling off their production lines at the Tesla Factory in Fremont, California in less than two years. This has put them in the position to pay their loan five years early.