Department of Energy
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The U.S. will not meet an electric-car adoption goal set by President Obama in 2011.
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Workplace Charging Doubles in Two Years, 90% Of Charging Stations Full
The Department of Energy's efforts to get companies onboard with workplace charging appear to be paying off.
Stephen Edelstein -
DoE Offers $1 Million Prize For Advances In Small-Scale Hydrogen Fueling For Homes
The Department of Energy hopes to spur development of hydrogen-fueling technology with a two-year contest.
Stephen Edelstein -
DoE Program That Funded Tesla, Fisker To Restart; Alcoa In Line For Loan?
It's baaaaaaaaack. The U.S. Department of Energy's $25 billion low-interest loan program may be about to start awarding new loans. The DoE's Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) program endured intense political criticism for funding not only electric-car maker Tesla Motors but also...
John Voelcker -
Nine New Projects Announced For Clean Vehicles In National Parks
Nine U.S. national parks will deploy clean vehicles as part of an ongoing green initiative.
Stephen Edelstein -
DoE Reboots Advanced Auto-Tech Loan Program That Funded Ford, Nissan, Tesla, Fisker
It's baaaaaaaaaaaack. U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced yesterday that the DoE had revised and updated its Advanced-Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) program, which offers low-interest loans to carmakers and their suppliers. Any new loans, according to a Detroit News...
John Voelcker -
The assets of bankrupt Fisker Automotive were sold to Wanxiang America at the close of an auction in Delaware bankruptcy court that lasted more than two days and lasted 19 rounds. Bloomberg reports that the Chinese company paid a total of $149.2 million for the company, or six times the price of $25 million first offered by unsuccessful bidder Hybrid Tech Holdings, whose opening bid was $55 million as the auction began. MORE: Who's Still Buying Brand-New Fisker Karmas, And Why? Winning bidder Wanxiang is China's largest auto-parts group. It also owns A123 Systems, the lithium-ion cell maker...
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Car Charging Group Buys Ecotality Electric-Car Charging Network For $3.3 Million
Troubled electric-car charging company Ecotality's Blink network will be bought by the Car Charging Group
Stephen Edelstein -
U.S.-Made 2013 Nissan Leaf Has Only 15 Percent Local Content; Here's Why
The 2013 Nissan Leaf electric car is assembled in Smyrna, Tennessee, for North American sales. In fact, Nissan got a low-interest loan for $1.6 billion from the U.S. Department of Energy to make that possible. So why does every 2013 Leaf carry a window sticker saying that its U.S. and Canadian...
John Voelcker -
Energy Department To Sell Its Fisker Loan: Kickstarter, Anyone?
That sound you heard yesterday was the other shoe dropping. The U.S. Department of Energy is offering its loan to Fisker Automotive for sale to the highest bidder, with a remaining face value of $164 million. The DoE did the same a few weeks ago with a much smaller loan--$45 million--to Vehicle...
John Voelcker -
Signed Offer For Fisker Automotive Sent To Energy Department
The fate of Fisker Automotive has been hanging for months, but now an offer for the company has been "signed" and is "on the table." At least that's the word from Ingo Voigt, who with Fritz Nol is one of a pair of German investors who want to buy the company. "I am proud to tell you that we just...
John Voelcker -
AM General Buys VPG, Defunct Natural-Gas Handicapped Van Maker
Less than a year ago, Vehicle Production Group seemed a success: The startup maker had built 2,500 MV-1 handicapped vans in a year, about one-quarter of them powered by natural gas. But this past April, VPG shut down due to a cash crunch that meant it couldn't make payroll. Now, its $50 million...
John Voelcker -
Ah, politics. Yesterday, Tesla paid off the balance of its U.S. government loan, using proceeds from its $1 billion-plus offering of stock and warrants last week, as CEO Elon Musk had said Monday it would in a tweet. The amount settled yesterday was $451.8 million, following installments paid by Tesla last year and in the first quarter of this year. Loans to Ford, Nissan, Tesla The company had been granted $465 million in low-interest loans by the U.S. Department of Energy in June 2009, through its advanced technology vehicle manufacturing program. Other carmakers who got loans included...
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How Are Electric-Car Batteries Made? Photos From Nissan's New Plant
Making a battery for an electric car is more like assembling microelectronics than the kind of auto-plant scenes we think of, involving huge steel stamping presses and battalions of automated welding robots. Last month, in addition to driving a 2013 Nissan Leaf through the Tennessee countryside, we...
John Voelcker -
Can Tesla Raise More Than $1 Billion On Soaring Stock Price?
Investors in startup electric-car maker Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] have had quite the wild ride lately. Following its first-ever profitable quarter, with its share price soaring above $80, Tesla announced last Wednesday that it would issue new stock and warrants. Now, Tesla has quietly increased its...
John Voelcker -
VPG Shuts Down; Startup Van Maker Was Backed By DoE Loans
While Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] is on a roll--with a rave review from Consumer Reports and a profitable quarter--other startup automakers aren't faring so well. And now another small car company that received low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Energy is in trouble and has halted...
John Voelcker -
As Predicted, Fisker Execs & DoE Get Roasted In House Hearing
Fisker Automotive CEO Tony Posawatz didn't attend yesterday's House committee hearing on the company's loan from the U.S. Department of Energy. He's out desperately seeking saviors to avert bankruptcy for the struggling startup electric-car maker, but he still may have had the better day. The title...
John Voelcker -
Fisker Misses DoE Loan Payment; House Hearing Tomorrow
The fortunes of the two highest-profile electric-car startups couldn't be diverging more starkly today. Yesterday, Fisker Automotive failed to make a payment of $10 million on the $192 million of low-interest loan funds it received from the U.S. Department of Energy. And tomorrow company executives...
John Voelcker -
In January 2005, legendary car designer Henrik Fisker founded a company to bring innovative new thinking to the automobile industry. Between that date and today, Fisker Automotive would create perhaps the most beautiful car ever made, raise almost $1.4 billion dollars from investors as diverse as Leonardo di Caprio and Kleiner Perkins, obtain a $528 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, balloon to 600+ employees, default on loans or investment conditions at least four separate times, spend $535,000 on a website, get sued by its own employees, get evicted from its primary business...
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DoE Backpedals, Will Fund Slight Hydrogen Fueling Station Expansion
It appears that the U.S. Department of Energy has had a change of heart. Four years ago, then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu was widely known as a skeptic about hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. Last summer, he appeared to relent--and now the DoE has said it will launch a campaign to promote hydrogen...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Will Repay Its Energy Department Loans By 2017, It Says
What a difference a few years makes. Startup electric-car maker Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] said it will repay its $465 million in low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Energy five years earlier than originally scheduled. The news came yesterday in the company's annual report. Sourcing Tesla...
John Voelcker -
Rejected For Loans Tesla Got, Inflatable Car Firm Sues DoE 3 Years Later
Oh, those DoE loans. They arose in the recent U.S. presidential debate--not just once or twice, but three times--and continue to generate debate. So here's more fuel for the fire: A company rejected three years ago for loans is now suing the DoE. Its proposed product? An inflatable electric car...
John Voelcker -
Chrysler Yanks Plug-In Hybrid Test Fleet Off Roads, Will Replace Batteries
Ask most people about Chrysler's plug-in hybrid prototype program, and you'll get something like, "Huh? Chrysler has plug-in hybrids?" In fact, the company does: 23 minivans and 109 pickup trucks on the roads for almost a year now, all prototypes to test the technology. Today, the company announced...
John Voelcker -
Fueling Stations: Electric Cars Trump All Other Alt-Fuel Types
Since about 1930, U.S. vehicles have largely been fueled on gasoline. Diesel passenger vehicles arrived in the 1960s, and there are now about 120,000 locations in the U.S. that offer one or both fuels. Since then, several alternative fuels have been proposed but largely failed to get a...
John Voelcker