Electric Car Maker Folds, Salinas Loses $500,000

[The Northerner]

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.

Read more: http://www.ksbw.com/money/28586219/detail.html#ixzz1SW3fZ4xa

[Bryn]

1. Killed by Oil Companies?

To keep us depend on gas.

[Rincewind]

3. Or, possibly,

no one wanted their cars. Most new businesses fail.

[indurancevile]

4. or maybe it was a scam to collect gov't subsidies.

i've often thought that funding a business was a good idea for cities/counties -- to hire their unemployed/keep up their tax base/retain quality of life.

but it has to be thought out well. giving a private company $300K seems no different than those scams where they cut taxes to entice businesses to locate in their area. i think if the city/county is providing the cash, it should be in charge.

most cities/counties are hiring people who are supposed to figure out how to revitalize their area. their ideas seem to include turning the place into a tourist destination (like america will be revitalized if we all take turns visiting each others' cities), putting up colorful flags, or giving corporations tax breaks.

nobody thinks big.

[in_cog_ni_to]

2. Who Killed the Salinas Green Vehicles?

Need we ask? I think not. Michael Moore Documentary soon to be released.