DOE

UPDATE: See below V-Vehicle Company -- the startup automaker backed in part by oil baron-turned-wind baron-turned-CNG baron T. Boone Pickens -- has dipped a few more toes in the deadpool. According to reports, V-Vehicle has not only lost its founder and CEO, Frank Varasano, but the company has also...Read More»

Yesterday, Chrysler revealed plans to sell an all-electric version of the Fiat 500 in U.S. showrooms. Though the announcement made some people very happy, it wasn't especially groundbreaking: many had assumed a Fiat EV would arrive stateside in the not-so-distant future. Far more surprising was the...Read More»

Bad news for startup automaker V-Vehicle: the company has missed a crucial funding deadline, and as a result, it will forfeit $87 million in cash and incentives from the state of Louisiana for V-Vehicle's new plant in Monroe. As per an agreement with the state, V-Vehicle needed to demonstrate that...Read More»

According to FAA records, the private jet of Tesla CEO and PayPal co-founder Elon Musk has made at least 12 trips to Washington, D.C. since the first of 2009. That in itself isn't a problem; many executives with Musk's resources own private aircraft. The problem is that (a) the operating cost of...Read More»

Earlier this week, our own John Voelcker raised a number of questions about Tesla and its long-term viability. Now Wired -- a high-tech media outlet that often champions the EV automaker -- has revealed some interesting news about Tesla's recent $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy...Read More»

With around 260,000 vehicles at its disposal, the United States Postal Service operates the biggest civilian fleet in the country. Unfortunately, most of those vehicles get terrible gas mileage: the Grumman postal van only earns around 10mpg, and the 17% of USPS trucks that run on E85 don't fare...Read More»

Nissan has become one of the first non-U.S. based automakers to receive funding from the Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Incentive Program established back in 2007. The program, which set aside $25 billion to help fund the development and manufacture of a new...Read More»

In June of last year, the Department of Energy announced $8 billion of low-interest loans for automakers in the first round of funding from its $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program. Of that total, $5.9 billion went to Ford, $1.6 billion went to Nissan, and $465 million...Read More»

Since June of this year, the Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicle program has awarded low-interest loans to encourage the development of next-gen cars. Ford, Nissan, Tesla, and Fisker got in on the action, but one outside-the-box company has been left on the sidelines: Aptera. The...Read More»

A couple of weeks ago, Fisker gleefully announced fuel efficiency stats for its upcoming extended-range Karma sedan (67 mpg, though the math is a little fuzzy).  Now the upstart automaker has another reason to celebrate: the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Fisker a $529 million low-interest...Read More»