the U.S. today. Annual fuel savings would be 300 gallons per year relative to the fleet average and $4/gallon gas prices would mean $1,200 in annual gasoline savings. In addition, the V Car would meet the PZEV emissions standard, the most stringent tailpipe and evaporative emissions standard currently specified by the California Air Resource Board for gasoline-powered vehicles, which results in 71 percent improvement in NOx emissions. The V Car would save eight billion gallons of gas and 160 billion pounds of CO2 in the 10 years after launch.”
When V-Vehicle made its debut last June at a news conference with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, the founding CEO, former Oracle executive Frank Varasano, said the startup automaker had lined up $100 million in venture funding. The investors included the Silicon Valley VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and T. Boone Pickens, the Texas energy maverick. Two Kleiner Perkins partners, John Doerr and Ray Lane, have seats on the company’s board. Google Ventures emerged as an investor a few weeks later, when David C. Drummond, a top Google executive joined the board.
V-Vehicle officials made it clear, however, that the company would need loans under the Energy Department’s Advanced Vehicle Technology Loan Program to move forward with their ambitious plans. The company also got $67 million in economic development incentives from Louisiana.
“We were extremely surprised and disappointed by this decision,” V-Vehicle’s Varasano said in the statement issued by the company. “Our yearlong discussions with the Department of Energy had left us confident and optimistic that the loan applications would be approved.”
In a statement, Louisiana Gov. Jindal called the decision “disappointing and surprising news.”
