Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Electric Car Co. fails in Salinas, Calif., gone with it are $3.4 million federal, state, and local taxpayer dollars

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7/18/11, "Green Vehicles in Salinas Closes," MontereyCountyWeekly, Sara Rubin

"Months after the Weekly reported that Green Vehicles had fallen behind on rent, the erstwhile electric car manufacturer and would-be star of eco-conscious redevelopment will close its doors before it ever got up and running.

Salinas city officials announced Monday that Mike Ryan, president of Green Vehicles, said he had closed the headquarters due to a lack of investors. Green Vehicles was selected in 2009 to receive a $2.7 million grant from the California Energy Commission, and was required to raise matching funds....

"The reason why we failed is because we failed to raise the $2.8 million in matching funds," says former VP of Green Vehicles, Lee Colin, a Pacific Grove resident. Green Vehicles had planned to start making cars by the end of 2011.

City officials will consider how to recover at least a portion of the $700,000 the city had invested in the business. In exchange for the city's financial support, Green Vehicles had pledged to create about 10 new local jobs, hiring one Salinas resident for each $32,500 of the more than $300,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funding provided by Salinas to the company in 2009....

Colin says Ryan may file for bankruptcy."...

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7/18/11, "Electric Car Maker Folds, Salinas Loses $500,000," KSBW.com

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1/29/11, "Salinas maker of Triac electric vehicle nears production stage," The Californian.com


via Drudge Report

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