Carbon Motors Joins List Of Automaker Bankruptcies

Another specialty automaker has bitten the dust: Carbon Motors filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on June 7.

Using an old auto supplier plant in Connersville, IN, the company planned to build a police pursuit vehicle called the E7, which was to be powered by BMW’s 3.0-liter diesel straight six engine. The company was expected to employ 1,500 people.

Carbon’s proposal hinged on securing a $310 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy through its Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program. However, the application was denied in March 2012.

The company joins an ever-growing list of would-be automakers who have closed their doors. Electric vehicle maker Fisker Automotive is the best-known of the group, and it’s joined by Vehicle Production Group (VPG), Bright Automotive, Coda Automotive, and Better Place, an electric vehicle maker in Israel.

Fisker, Coda, and Bright all received funding from the $25 billion DoE program that denied Carbon. The DoE has doled out about $8 billion of the $25 billion available. Bright and Coda, like Fisker, were EV makers while VPG made vans for the disabled called the MV-1. VPG was attempting to produce a compressed natural gas version of the van, which is why it received funding.

The company officially listed its liabilities at $21.7 million and its assets at a mere $18,976, including one prototype, a few bits of furniture, books, and the company’s intellectual property.

The filing, which is a liquidation, is expected to leave debtors scrambling to recoup what they can out of the liquidation, according to multiple media reports.

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