Humvee manufacturer AM General paid $3 million at auction to purchase the U.S. Department of Energy‘s loan to Vehicle Production Group, a defunct maker of wheelchair-accessible vans that struggled to meet performance targets and shut down earlier this year.
Together with $5 million seized from the company’s accounts in April, that means the DOE recovered just $8 million of the $50 million it loaned VPG back in March 2011 under a government program designed to promote advanced technology vehicles. VPG’s plan was to sell handicapped vans that run on compressed natural gas.
Taxpayers also took a loss on the collapse of Fisker Automotive, which was awarded $529 million under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program, but received only $193 million before the DOE cut them off for failing to meet performance targets.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
