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The road hasn’t been easy for Next Autoworks (formerly V-Vehicle), which is backed by Google Ventures, T. Boone Pickens, and Kleiner Perkins. But the way forward has grown even rockier as legislators consider a proposal to shuffle around funds set aside for Next Autoworks’ project. Read More »

It’s a new day for V-Vehicle, an auto startup with ambitions to produce low-cost efficient cars. The company has just taken two steps common among startups whose investors are unhappy and pushing for a restart: a new name — Next Autoworks Co. — and a new … Read More »

 
 

Execs at green car startups like to give the impression that hundreds of millions of dollars in DOE green car loans are just about to fill up their corporate bank accounts. For some, it could be true. For others, not so much. Read More »

Lessons for GM from Google, Intel's Venture Capital Arms

A look at the strategies employed by the venture arms of Intel and Google provide some lessons for where General Motors’ new GM Ventures should go from here. Read More »

Google Ventures & The Lesson of V-Vehicle

Google Ventures will have to brace itself for the majority of investments to break even and lose money. Its investment into green car company V-Vehicle is the classic case in point of how far Google Ventures can miss the mark. Read More »

V-Vehicle: Local Governments Pledge $15M, If Feds Fund Startup

In northeastern Louisiana, where V-Vehicle (backed by Google Ventures and led by Kleiner Perkins VC Ray Lane) aims to build low-cost gas cars with higher-than-average efficiency, local officials voted on Monday to renew support for the startup in its bid for federal funds. Read More »

V-Vehicle on the Hunt for $100M to Build Plastic Car

V-Vehicle, the secretive auto startup backed by the venture capitalists at Kleiner Perkins, has pulled back the curtain for the first time on its future fundraising plans, stage of development and design elements of its inaugural model, which includes a plastic shell. Read More »

V-Vehicle Renews Factory Lease: Down, But Not Out?

V-Vehicle, the startup with big name investors and plans to build low-cost gas sippers with funding from Uncle Sam, let its factory lease expire last month after losing a bid for federal loans. But now V-Vehicle has renewed its lease on the facility. Read More »

Upstart Saba Motors, a finalist in the $10 million Automotive X Prize competition, is looking for cues in Dell’s business model as it sets out to build an electric sports car. Read More »

V-Vehicle Founder & CEO Out, Ray Lane in as Chief Executive

V-Vehicle has undergone a shakeup since the feds rejected its request for $321.1 million in loans. V-Vehicle founder Frank Varasano has left his post as chief executive, and investor Ray Lane has stepped into the CEO role, the Monroe News Star reports. Read More »

CHEAT SHEET: Green Car Loan Winners & Losers

“Extremely surprised” and “shocked” are some of the words that secretive startup V-Vehicle and local officials in Louisiana have used this week in the wake of V-Vehicle’s failed bid for a federal loan to build a low-cost, high-MPG car. Is it really so shocking? Read More »

V-Vehicle: DOE Decides Against Loan for Stealthy Car Startup

V-Vehicle, the stealthy auto startup backed by T. Boone Pickens and Kleiner Perkins that aims to build low-cost, highly efficient, gasoline-powered cars, announced late Wednesday that it’s game over for the company’s bid to secure $321.1 million in federal loans. V-Vehicle had requested funds under the … Read More »

More Must Reads

That looming March 1 deadline for V-Vehicle to raise $350 million — the amount that the T. Boone Pickens and Kleiner Perkins-backed startup needed in order to release the bulk of an incentive package put together by state and local authorities in Monroe, La., (or … Read More »

One of the last pieces that could deliver V-Vehicle — the secretive San Diego startup that’s aiming to build a highly efficient car in Louisiana — some hefty manufacturing incentives has just fallen into place. The Louisiana State Bond Commission gave the green light Thursday for … Read More »

A March 1 deadline looms for V-Vehicle to raise $350 million — the amount that the T. Boone Pickens and Kleiner Perkins-backed startup needs in order to release the bulk of an incentive package put together by state and local authorities in Monroe, Louisiana (or … Read More »

For at least one green car maker out there, tomorrow may be the lucky day. According to a press advisory from the Department of Energy today, Secretary Steven Chu will — drumroll please — “make a loan announcement” related to the agency’s advanced technology vehicle loan … Read More »

V-Vehicle, the auto startup backed by the venture capitalists at Kleiner Perkins and energy baron T. Boone Pickens, has begun testing prototypes of the vehicle it aims to build in Louisiana’s Ouachita Parish. V-Vehicle’s director of Louisiana assembly operations, David Hitchcock, tells the local … Read More »

A new generation of plug-in vehicles designed for mainstream U.S. consumers is slated to roll out over the next five years — giving car buyers more electric options than ever before. But while automakers are racing to develop models that could eventually see mass market adoption, … Read More »

The flood of funding from the Department of Energy’s $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program — $8 billion for Tesla Motors, Nissan and Ford in June — has slowed to a trickle in recent months, comprising just two awards totaling some $552 million, and … Read More »

The meaning of Southern California “car culture” may be poised for a makeover, as the regions around Los Angeles, long notorious for smog, traffic congestion and endless freeways race to take on a greener profile. LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced this week at the LA Auto … Read More »

Louisiana offered up a hefty incentive package in order to bring the Kleiner Perkins and T. Boone Pickens-backed auto startup V-Vehicle Company to the state. And over the next few weeks, businesses in the state will be racing to secure some of the direct benefits of … Read More »

Out of stealth mode and into the shadows — that’s the road down which auto startup V-Vehicle’s has traveled over the last few months. Since making the splashy announcement in June that it had raised more than $100 million from big-name investors T. Boone … Read More »

AT&T’s plans to make one of the largest U.S. purchases to date of compressed natural gas vehicles made natural gas backer T. Boone Pickens giddy enough to tweet about the announcement when it came out earlier this year. But an important detail was left open: … Read More »

The energy bill passed the House on Friday, but the proposed cap and trade system and new incentives for renewable energy are still a long way from going into law as the Senate needs to pass its own version. As we transition to the next … Read More »

Last week right before the news broke that the venture capitalists from Kleiner Perkins and clean energy investor T. Boone Pickens had quietly funded a 3-year-old fuel-efficient car startup called V-Vehicle, I had just started working on a post about Pickens titled, “What Have You … Read More »

In some sectors, $100 million in venture capital would be enough for a startup to make some serious progress. Twitter’s funding at this point reaches only into the double-digit millions. But for V-Vehicle — a startup that just came out of stealth mode yesterday with … Read More »

It’s about time two of greentech’s highest-profile investors got together on a deal. This afternoon V-Vehicle, an auto startup that was founded in 2006, came out of stealth and unveiled that it has gained investment from the venture capitalists at Kleiner Perkins — John Doerr … Read More »

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