Posted by admin on November 22, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Silicon Valley electric sports car maker Tesla Motors is planning to go public soon, two people familiar with the situation said, outlining plans to sell stock and cash in on investor appetite for green technology and interest in battery-powered vehicles.
The six-year-old start-up’s investors include Google Inc (GOOG.O) founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
An IPO filing from Tesla, best known for its $109,000 all-electric Roadster, is expected any day, said one of the sources. The person did not give a specific time frame.
Tesla spokesman Ricardo Reyes declined to comment on what he called “rumor or speculation.” (Reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Peter Henderson and Derek Caney)
By Poornima Gupta
Posted by admin on November 13, 2009
Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) — U.S. fuel-economy ratings, a staple of new-car window stickers since 1975, need a makeover because the arrival of electric autos makes the miles-per-gallon standard obsolete, researcher Edmunds.com said.
Buyers now need an estimate of the expense to fuel a vehicle, Edmunds.com Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Anwyl said yesterday in Detroit. Edmunds.com will petition the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department next week to make the switch, he said.
“Time and technology marches on,” Anwyl wrote in a draft of his letter to the agencies. “For an increasing number of vehicles, ‘gallons’ aren’t being consumed at all.”
Dropping the mpg benchmark for auto efficiency would mean rewriting the system of city, highway and combined mileage ratings already being tested by new technology. General Motors Co. said in 2008 it reached an agreement with the EPA on how to rate the Chevrolet Volt plug-in car, which will be able to go 40 miles (64 kilometers) on battery power alone.
The EPA, which administers the ratings program, declined to comment on the Edmunds.com proposal. The Santa Monica, California-based company operates Web sites used by consumers and auto-industry professionals.
Anwyl said buyers will find it hard to comparison shop based on fuel expense for vehicles such as the Volt, which will tap an onboard gasoline engine to replenish a discharged battery.
Prius and Volt
Under the current EPA system, Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius gasoline-electric hybrid is rated 50 mpg in city driving, while the Volt is expected to earn a 230 mpg city rating when it debuts in late 2010, Anwyl said.
The Volt would have a projected monthly fuel cost of $48, while the Prius’s expense would be $62, Anwyl said, citing Edmunds.com’s fuel-economy proposal, which is based on driving 1,000 miles a month.
“There’s still a difference, but it’s not as large as the mileage rating would suggest,” said Anwyl, who gave comparisons for several propulsion systems and fuels in his draft letter.
For example, Ford Motor Co.’s gasoline-powered Focus, which is rated at 28 mpg in combined city and highway driving, would have a $112 monthly fuel bill, while Honda Motor Co.’s Civic GX would cost $54 with the same mpg rating because it uses compressed natural gas.
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s Mini Cooper E, which runs on battery power, gets a 99 mpg rating and would have a monthly electric bill of $49. A Chevrolet HHR that runs on a mix of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline gets 18 mpg and would cost $140 a month, according to Edmunds.com’s calculations.
“The mileage ratings no longer offer a very accurate comparison,” Anwyl said.
By Keith Naughton
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a6IyGfPCrmxk
Posted by admin on September 27, 2009
WASHINGTON — A tiny car company backed by former Vice President Al Gore has just gotten a $529 million U.S. government loan to help build a hybrid sports car in Finland that will sell for about $89,000.
The award this week to California startup Fisker Automotive Inc. follows a $465 million government loan to Tesla Motors Inc., purveyors of a $109,000 British-built electric Roadster. Tesla is a California startup focusing on all-electric vehicles, with a number of celebrity endorsements that is backed by investors that have contributed to Democratic campaigns.
Fisker’s Karma hybrid sports car, above, will initially cost about $89,000.
The awards to Fisker and Tesla have prompted concern from companies that have had their bids for loans rejected, and criticism from groups that question why vehicles aimed at the wealthiest customers are getting loans subsidized by taxpayers.
“This is not for average Americans,” said Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, an anti-tax group in Washington. “This is for people to put something in their driveway that is a conversation piece. It’s status symbol thing.”
DOE officials spent months working with Fisker on its application, touring its Irvine, Calif., and Pontiac, Mich., facilities and test-driving prototypes.
Matt Rogers, who oversees the department’s loan programs as a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, said Fisker was awarded the loan after a “detailed technical review” that concluded the company could eventually deliver a highly fuel-efficient hybrid car to a mass audience. Fisker said most of its DOE loan will be used to finance U.S. production of a $40,000 family sedan that has yet to be designed.
“It’s the ability to drive significant change in fuel economy across a large market segment” that swayed the department to approve the Fisker loan, Mr. Rogers said. “We got quite excited.”
Henrik Fisker, who designed cars for BMW, Aston Martin and Tesla before starting his Fisker Automotive in 2007, said his goal is to build the first plug-in electric hybrids that won’t sacrifice the luxury, performance and looks of traditional gas-powered luxury cars.
The Karma will target an exclusive audience — Gore was one of the first to sign up for one. Mr. Fisker says all new technology starts out being expensive. He pointed to flat-screen televisions that once started at $25,000 but are now affordable to the mass market.
The four-door Karma, powered by a lithium-ion battery, will be able to run solely on electric power for 50 miles, and will achieve an average fuel economy of 100 mpg over the span of a year, the company says. Production is scheduled to start in December, with about 15,000 vehicles a year expected to hit the U.S. market starting next June.
Many of the 1,500 people who have made deposits on the Karma are former BMW and Mercedes owners who want an environmentally friendly car without sacrificing luxury, Mr. Fisker said.
He said he pitched the Karma to Mr. Gore at an event hosted by KPCB last year, and that the former vice president almost immediately submitted a down payment for the car.
Kalee Kreider, a spokeswoman for Mr. Gore, confirmed that the former vice president backs Fisker and purchased a Karma. “He believes that a global shift of the automobile fleet toward electric vehicles, accompanying a shift toward renewable-energy generation, represents an important part of a sensible strategy for solving the climate crisis,” she said in a statement.
Fisker’s top investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a veteran Silicon Valley venture-capital firm of which Gore is a partner. Employees of KPCB have donated more than $2.2 million to political campaigns, mostly for Democrats, including President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign contributions.
Officials at Kleiner Perkins didn’t return requests for comment.
Asked whether Mr. Gore had any influence on Fisker’s application, the DOE’s Rogers said, “None at all.”
“This is a very attractive, very across-party-lines kind of vehicle,” Mr. Rogers said. “All of the detailed due diligence [was] done by independent review teams.”
Other Fisker investors include Eco-Drive (Capital) Partners LLC, an investment consortium, and Qatar Investment Authority, a state-run investor based in Qatar.
Fisker’s government loans will come from a $25 billion program established by Congress in 2007 to help auto makers invest in the technology to meet a new congressional mandate to improve fuel efficiency. In June, the DOE awarded the first $8 billion from the program to Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co., and Tesla, which are all developing electric cars.
Some companies that have been turned down for loans from DOE say they did not get much feedback from the department about their applications. O. John Coletti, president of EcoMotors International of Troy, Mich., said his company applied for a $20 million loan from the agency last December, and last month got a one-page rejection letter from the loan program’s director, Lachlan Seward. EcoMotors’ lead investor is Vinod Khosla, himself a former Kleiner Perkins partner and a longtime campaign contributor to Republicans and Democrats alike.
“I don’t have an issue with the winners … it’s possible somebody has better ideas than us,” Mr. Coletti said. At the same time, he said, “More feedback from DOE on a timely basis would be wonderful. When you’re running a business you’d like to know whether you’re going to be able to take advantage of this opportunity.”
Mr. Coletti’s company — which makes diesel engines and is still waiting to hear from the Department on a separate loan application to help it build a manufacturing facility — isn’t without politically well-connected patrons, either. Its major investor is Vinod Khosla, himself a former Kleiner Perkins partner who has donated to campaigns.
Scott Redmond, CEO of XP Vehicles Inc., said he met with DOE officials twice in Washington after applying for a $40 million loan to develop a $15,000 to $25,000 hybrid, and that both times he was told his application looked good. Since receiving a rejection letter from DOE in August, Redmond said, he has been unable to get a full explanation as to why his request was turned down.
Mr. Rogers said he was not at liberty to discuss individual applications that had been turned down, but said the process has been handled fairly and objectively.
By JOSH MITCHELL and STEPHEN POWER
http://online.wsj.com
Posted by admin on September 24, 2009
Oregon now has a new car maker — Arcimoto out of Eugene took the wraps off its one and onlyproduct Wednesday at Pioneer Courthouse Square.
The Pulse is the first electric car made in Oregon. It gets 190 miles-per-gallon — equivalent and up to 50 miles per charge.
Several companies are hoping to turn Oregon into Detroit West, to build and market vehicles with a green and electric bent. Arcimoto CEO Erik Stabl says being first has an advantage with consumers.
“We’re going to be moving right away next year in 2010 with 300 units locally produced here in Oregon and going from there, he said.
Clearly there is a market for electric vehicles in Oregon. Many at the unveiling were excited to get a first glimpse. Beth Rose of Portland would like to get behind the wheel.
“My normal driving is very very short distances. It would be a perfect, perfect car for me” she said while starring at the midnight blue rocket shaped three-wheeler.
Arcimoto found Mark Frohnmayer, son of former state attorney general and University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer, hopes to make a positive influence in the electric car evolution.
“If you look at what we’re trying to do with the product it’s to solve the transpiration usage pattern that is the vast majority of vehicle trips” he said.
Meanwhile the Oregon lawmakers are courting any and all companies anxious to be apart of the electric vehicle movement in the state. Representative Nancy Nathanson of Eugene wants the tax credit given to owners of hybrids to be extended to buyers of electric cars.
“I think it’s time now to make sure we offer the same kind of credit for consumers of electric vehicles” she said.
So far ten people have signed up for the new ride. They will sell for under $20,000.
By JOE SMITH, kgw.com
