New Automaker Plans to Assemble Vehicles in Louisiana

California has produced many new ideas in the automotive world with Tesla and a new start-up automaker called V-Vehicle Company.

V-Vehicle was founded in 2006 by former Oracle Corp. executive Frank Varasano. Although the company has several investors, including T. Boone Pickens, V-Vehicle applied for $340-million worth of government loans. The loans would come from the $25 billion pool of money the government set aside in 2007 to spur the growth of automotive technology.

The company plans to build only fuel-efficient vehicles and will start manufacturing at a plant in Louisiana. Once production starts in around 18 months, company officials say the plant will employ 1400 people. V-Vehicle Vice President Horst Metz said that the plant didn’t expect the employees to have a union, but added “That is the choice of the employees.”

In order to convince the company to buildthe car in Louisiana, the state put up an incentive package worth $67 million to fund improvements and expansion. The local government put up an additional $15 million.

Details on the car are extremely scarce, as company officials declined to comment on anything about the vehicle. Interestingly, this includes fuel economy projections. The company has said who the designer is — Tom Matano, the same man who designed the Mazda Miata — but have not said anything about the cars design. Matano only said that he believes the car will be an iconic vehicle in 25 years.

Source: The Detroit Free Press