Aptera to try again for federal loan from the DOE
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Fledgling electric car maker Aptera Motors hopes a law recently signed by President Obama will give it another shot at winning financial support from the federal government.
The Vista-based automaker has been working for several years to bring its quirky, three-wheel, two-passenger electric car to market. Aptera suffered a setback in December when the U.S. Department of Energy rejected its application for a loan under a $25-billion program designed to speed development of fuel-efficient vehicles.
The reason, according to Aptera, was that the loans were available only for passenger vehicles which, by the government’s definition, must have at least four wheels.
However, Aptera is dusting off its old loan application. A provision in a new energy appropriations bill expands the program to cover two- and three-wheel vehicles that carry at least two passengers and get at least 75 miles per gallon.
Aptera hopes to borrow anywhere from $70 million to $100 million or more, depending on how officials at the DOE, which is overseeing the program, evaluate the company’s application.
Aptera could use the money. Private funding has been harder to come by since last winter’s credit crisis, and cash-flow concerns convinced the company to re-evaluate its production plans. The company had hoped to deliver its first vehicles by year’s end and to be at full production by mid-2010, but those dates may be pushed back, said Marques McCammon, Aptera’s chief marketing officer.
“We thought it was prudent to slow down a little bit. Our fundraising efforts were taking longer than we had anticipated,” he said.
“Our strategy has always been to fund our company with private money,” he added. But “we see the federal loan as a chance to accelerate production and expand outside California more quickly.”
Nearly 4,000 people have paid the $500 deposit to reserve a 2e, which will come in electric-only and plug-in hybrid versions. The price will be between $25,000 and $40,000.
McCammon says the company has lined up a distribution partner but can’t say yet who it is. To date, five companies have gotten loans under the DOE advanced technology program: Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co., Fisker Automotive Inc., Tesla Motors Inc. and, most recently, parts supplier Tenneco Inc., which will use the money to develop fuel-efficient emission control components for advanced technology vehicles.
-- Martin Zimmerman
redit: Aptera Motors