Malcolm Bricklin says he’s confident he will win the cash award for the Automotive X-Prize, (according to CarConnection), with a 100 mpg plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle from his company Visionary Vehicles. Yep, that sounds like good ol’ Bricklin. The 68-year-old car entrepreneur is famous for both bringing the Yugo to the U.S. and also racking up more than $20 million in debt for his company that failed to sell a sports car called the Bricklin SV-1.
After aborting plans to import vehicles built by Chinese manufacturer Chery,
Visionary Vehicles has already reorganized itself. Now the company is working on a plug-in hybrid that supposedly has a price tag starting at $35,000. What are Bricklin’s chances of success? Well according to AutoblogGreen, the car is being designed by Herb Grasse, who designed the original Bricklin SV-1. The same one that only sold 3,000 units . . . Maybe not the best sign.
[...] Tesla Motors is getting its Roadster ready. Fisker Automotive is aiming at the luxury sedan market. Malcolm Bricklin’s Visionary Vehicles wants to win the Automotive X-Prize with its $35,000 hybrid. While Venture Vehicles just raised [...]
[...] DIY garage-based teams have entered, as well as some relics from automotive history, including the man who brought the U.S. the Yugo. The long list of car entrepreneurs and ingénues reaffirms Clean Edge’s recent estimation [...]