Electric Car Maker Folds, Salinas Loses $500,000 One type of electric car that Green Vehicles was supposed to build was the TRIAC. A Salinas car manufacturing company that was expected to build environmentally friendly electric cars and create new jobs folded before any cars 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. When the company still ran into financial trouble last year, the city of Salinas handed to Ryan an additional $240,000 in investment money. Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue said he was "surprised and disappointed" by the news. City officials were equally irked that Ryan notified them through an email that his company had crashed and burned. Salinas Redevelopment Director Jeff Weir said Green Vehicles folded because of a "lack of investors," and a $2.7 million grant from California Energy Commission that never materialized. Donohue said he will work with the state to try to get at least $240,000 back from the now-defunct company. Read more: http://www.ksbw.com/money/28586219/detail.html#ixzz1SUZSBCri |
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