Archive for the ‘low-interest loans’ Category

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 company's 2e model has been legally classified as a motorcycle, so Aptera hasn't been eligible for the program, but that'll change with Congress' redefining of the term "automobile". (Hint: if it's enclosed, seats two, and gets 75 mpg, it's in the ballpark.) John Voelcker has the full story at GreenCarReports.com.

On October 1, Alan Taub will become VP of Research and Development at General Motors.

It's a big job, not to mention that the company's historically independent R+D group was just made part of the Product Development group as GM starts to emerge from its recent bankruptcy with the aid of low-interest government loans.

Our sister site GreenCarReports.com interviewed Taub at length. We thought we'd simply share our five favorite excerpts:

- We don't do any research just for its own sake. We have to go in with some application to a vehicle in mind.

- In our labs, we have car interiors where the seating is much more like business class on an...