founders Steve Fambro and Chris Anthony. The CEO said he made a strategic decision to lie low until Aptera had both a “solid plan” for funding the company and a “fully engineered, design-intent” vehicle ready for production.
Wilbur conceded that Aptera’s fund-raising efforts hit a wall last year, and he described 2009 as “the worst year in 35 years for startup fundraising,” with most VC firms shunning new deals as they sought to preserve funding for their existing portfolio companies.
Nevertheless, Wilbur said Aptera recently secured about $10 million in funding from NRG Energy of Princeton, NJ, which he characterized as the first part of a round that remains open, although he did not say how much the company ultimately intends to raise. Wilbur says Aptera also is awaiting a determination on its application for a five-year, $184 million loan from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program.
With the first part of venture funding secured, Wilbur said Aptera plans to move by the end of this year into a new 200,000 square-foot assembly facility in Oceanside, CA, about 38 miles north of San Diego, where the company anticipates hiring 500 employees. If additional venture funding can be secured as expected, Wilbur says it will take about 11 months for the company to begin “full-blown production.”
The Aptera CEO also said the company eventually plans to add a second, larger manufacturing plant outside California that would employ another 2,000 workers. That plant would likely be located east of the Mississippi River, Aptera spokesman Marques McCammon told reporters.
