New automaker V-Vehicle Co. sets up shop in idled Louisiana GM plant, hires Miata designer
Wither natural gas? T. Boone Pickens was last heard strongly supporting using the abundant North American fossil fuel as a means of moving the U.S. away from foreign oil. Today, though, the Texas oil man (and almost wind man) was revealed as an investor in a new automotive company called V-Vehicle Co. Based in San Diego, VVC has announced that it will move into an ex-GM plant in Monroe, Louisiana that has been idle since 2007 to build "environmentally friendly" vehicles.
About all we know of the vehicles is the teaser image above and that the company says it will be a "fuel-efficient car for the U.S. market," but we can guess at the style because former Mazda design chief Tom Matano, the man behind the MX-5 Miata, has been hired as VVC's design director. Matano said that more details on the car would be released later.
As we mentioned earlier, the state hopes that the plant will create about 1,400 new jobs with an average salary of $40,000. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal was at the announcement ceremony today and says that the state offered VVC an incentive package worth $67 million, and local governments will put up a further $15 million. Thanks again to Mart for the tip!
[Sources: CNBC, Automotive News - sub. req'd]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
tankd0g 2:36PM (6/17/2009)
I can't help but wonder how many other companies like this would have swooped in to replace lost GM jobs if GM was just allowed to go away a year ago.
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David Wiles 3:10PM (6/17/2009)
GM was never going to "go away." It was going into Chapter 11, not Chapter 7, or it was going to reorganize outside of bankruptcy. So now it's in Chapter 11. It is closing plants and brands and there will be more room for start-ups like this. A year one way or the other isn't going to make a difference when the business is as capital intensive as this industry is.
alex 3:08PM (6/17/2009)
What's stopping them from replacing GM lost jobs even though GM still exists?
tankd0g 3:59PM (6/17/2009)
$30-60 Billion dollars of start-up stopping money that GM is being subsidized with.
polo 5:41PM (6/17/2009)
This is SOCIALISM. omg I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY ARE GOING TO RIP ***US*** OFF AND TAKE ***OUR*** MONEY AND LEAVE ***OUR CHILDREN*** WITH A BILL.
Jindal is a MARXIST SOCIALIST AMERICAN HATING THUG. HE'S TAKING ***OUR*** MONEY AND HANDING IT OUT LIKE TOILET PAPER. V-VEHICLE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO GO BANKRUPT RATHER THAN MORE MONEY TO BE PRINTED ON ***OUR** DIME. THIS IS PURE SOCIALISM, I WANT TO VOMIT RIGHT NOW.
oh wait. we only say those things if its a Dem doing it. hypocrite rethuglicans.
jpm100 9:15AM (6/18/2009)
Nice of the Obama administration to have GM slice of pieces of itself for pennies to the benefit of these enviro-ventures.
Imagine that.
13enS 2:46PM (6/17/2009)
Matano is also the dean of the Industrial Design school at Academy Art.... I guess I should keep my ear to the ground during the summer. News to me.
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Andre 2:45PM (6/17/2009)
Future sounds competitive with all these smaller start-ups..
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polo 5:38PM (6/17/2009)
It also sounds SOCIALIST.
Jindal is a MARXIST SOCIALIST AMERICAN HATING THUG. HE'S TAKING ***OUR*** MONEY AND HANDING IT OUT LIKE TOILET PAPER. V-VEHICLE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO GO BANKRUPT RATHER THAN MORE MONEY TO BE PRINTED ON ***OUR** DIME. THIS IS PURE SOCIALISM, I WANT TO VOMIT RIGHT NOW.
oh wait. we only say those things if its a Dem doing it. hypocrite rethuglicans.
zamafir 2:50PM (6/17/2009)
awesome, while tesla wasn't a rip-roaring success, it's nice to see more people putting their money where their mouth is and doing something about the inequities they see in domestic car makers. best of luck to 'em. they'll need it.
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cowbell 1:54PM (6/18/2009)
Sadly, no one is putting their money were there mouth is. If you read into the article, this whole thing is contingent on this company getting $340 million in loans from the government.
This whole thing could very easily never happen.
zamafir 4:37PM (6/18/2009)
damnit.
Erik 3:14PM (6/17/2009)
Good to see someone reusing existing plants rather than building new ones. Best of luck to these guys.
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accelerating_cubicle 3:44PM (6/17/2009)
This is awesome, the resurgence of smaller automakers. Instead of badge engineering, we actually get uniquely different engineering.
Isn't this what the free markets are about? the pursuit of a better mouse trap?
What better way to showcase American ingenuity. This is kinda like when the all the baby bells were created with the breakup of AT&T.
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RoamingGnome 5:54PM (6/17/2009)
I really hope T. Pickens re-negotiates the wages of the employees and doesn't join the UAW so we can actually see competitively priced cars come out of this plant!
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Iwa 5:24PM (6/17/2009)
It's up to the employees if they join the UAW or not. If Pickens or V-Vehicle doesn't want a union shop, they better offer competitive wages/benefits to keep the union away.
RoamingGnome 5:57PM (6/17/2009)
You do realize that if they didn't pay such high wages they would be able to make the same margin at a lower cost right? I guess my language wasn't perfect but all cars built in the U.S. could be sold at a lower sticker price if their production costs were not as high.
VVC's median pay is listed at $40,000
What is the median pay of a GM employee?
polo 8:34PM (6/17/2009)
"You do realize that if they didn't pay such high wages they would be able to make the same margin at a lower cost right?"
You do realize that as late as 2006 Toyota workers made more than UAW workers, right? You do realize that if they had such high wages then employees working for Toyota and the other automakers with plants in the US would be all too happy to unionize. The fact is the other non-union automakers wages and benefits are competitive with any union wages. GM is where they were at because they bet on big burly SUVs to sell forever, while Toyota (wisely) looked beyond immediate profits and invested in efficiency and quality. Their fortunes are the result of management decisions, not worker wages.
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/01/31/toyota-workers-in-us-made-more-than-uaw-members-for-first-time-l/
Still its not surprising though that rethuglicans argue in favor of downsizing US wages "to make them competitive" (want your job priced competitive with a sweatshop??). Its that brain-dead logic that led to the outsourcing of the manufacturing industry, followed the genius idea to replace all that lost income and buying power with CREDIT. If you keep reducing the wages of the middle class (who no longer can rely on credit to make up the difference) what do you think the net result would be, other than a contraction in our economy and standards of living, played out as an prolonged, unending recession or depression? I wonder if rethuglicans ever think beyond the scripted talking points.
Kevin 3:37PM (6/17/2009)
Wow, the state is giving money to business. Sounds like socialism to me! I didn't think conservative states abided by that evil.
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another_one 3:49PM (6/17/2009)
This is very common... note that the state acts like it gets the money back in taxes... but never really does. Case in point: Spring Hill plants in Tennessee. The goal of these incentives is for the politicians to be able to brag about "bribing" car companies to build facilities for jobs for the constituents. Regardless of whether they bring in outside workers or not. This form of socialism has been going on for a awhile.