This just in: In a shocking turn of events, government-subsidized electric-car maker Green Vehicles has gone belly up. Okay, maybe it’s not so shocking. KSBW has the story:
A Salinas car manufacturing company that was expected to build environmentally friendly electric cars and create new jobs folded before almost any vehicles could run off the assembly line.The city of Salinas had invested more than half a million dollars in Green Vehicles, an electric car start-up company.All of that money is now gone, according to Green Vehicles President and Co-Founder Mike Ryan.
The start-up company set up shop in Salinas in the summer of 2009, after the city gave Ryan a $300,000 community development grant.When the company still ran into financial trouble last year, the city of Salinas handed Ryan an additional $240,000. Green Vehicles also received $187,000 from the California Energy Commission.Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue said he was “surprised and disappointed” by the news. City officials were equally irked that Ryan notified them through an email that his company had crashed and burned.Salinas Economic Development Director Jeff Weir said Green Vehicles flopped because of a lack of investors.
The start-up company promised city leaders that it would create 70 new jobs and pay $700,000 in taxes a year to Salinas.
Just another case study in the premature promises of alternative energies: more jobs, more consumer savings, blah, blah, blah. Cars that run on electrons, burning corn for fuel, Nantucket windmills — pick your boondoggle. Just be sure to keep throwing good money at bad ideas.