What Part Of 'No' Does Electric-Car Maker Li-Ion Motors Not Get?

By Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

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Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield is a self-confessed petrol head. She grew up in a carless family but was able at a very early age to name cars passing her on... More

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Li-Ion Motors Wave II, Progressive Automotive X-Prize winner.

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A little over a year ago, a relatively unknown electric automaker called Li-Ion Motors Corp. won the $2.5 million Alternative Side-By-Side Class in the Progressive Insurance Automotive X-Prize.

Since then, Li-Ion Motors has been putting out regular press releases and information about its two electric cars -- the X-Prize-winning Wave II and the its super-hyped but never-quite finished Inizio super-car. 

Sadly for Li-Ion Motors, the press releases seem little more than a thin veil over a backdrop of allegations of misconduct and fraud, court cases and even a U.S. and securities and Exchange Commission investigation. 

Now the firm seems to have sunken to a new low.

According to The New York Times, Li-Ion Motors has been caught pitching the possibility of a federal low-interest loan as the keystone to building a 600-job manufacturing plant to potential investors. 

The problem? Over a year ago, before the firm had even won the Automotive X-Prize, officials from the Department of Energy wrote to the firm detailing how it did not meet the criteria for an Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Incentive Program (ATVMIP) low-interest loan. 

liv-inizio

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Yet in a recent publication of the Vehicle Electrification magazine, a quote from a company spokesperson remained buoyant about the possibility of a loan. 

“Li-Ion Motors has applied for -- but has not yet received -- federal funding to help with vehicle development and manufacture”, the article wrote. After its publication, Li-Ion Motors then publicized the article to its investors. 

Admittedly, it’s been a year since the X-Prize, and over a year since Li-Ion Motors received its initial decline of funding. But with the $2.5 million prize fund going to settle a pre-existing court claim against the firm and not the fellow X-Prize contestants the firm promised to share it with, we’re really not sure how Li-Ion Motors fortunes have changed enough to make it eligible for federal assistance. 

You see, in order to be eligible for a loan under the ATVM program, a firm must first prove itself viable even without a loan guarantee. In other words, it has to prove that any monies loaned to it stand a good chance of being repaid. 

For now then, Li-Ion Motors seems caught in a web of its own weaving. Stand well clear. 

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