Malcolm Bricklin undoubtedly has a pretty opinion of himself and a shallow knowledge of automotive history. In a recent interview he talked about his plans to create a new Chinese manufactured luxury plug-in hybrid vehicle. He claims to be the only human in history to create a new car from the ground up twice, referencing Preston Tucker and John Delorean as previous entrepreneurs who only got one shot at building a new car company. What Bricklin and the BusinessWeek writer both seem to be unaware of is that multiple attempts at starting a car company has actually been fairly commonplace in automotive history. The Ford Motor Company was actually Henry Ford's third car company after the first two failed to succeed. Henry Leland established both Cadillac and Lincoln before selling them to GM and Ford respectively. More recently, serial entrepreneurs in the tech industry are also pretty common.
Given Bricklin's selective knowledge of the history of the business he is in and the history of many of his own enterprises (Bricklin Motors, Yugo, his abortive tie-up with Chery), any pronouncements he makes about his latest venture need to be taken with a huge block of salt until there are actual vehicles for us to evaluate. In the meantime he plans to invest in a plant in China to build a quarter million battery packs per year in order to get the volumes up and the unit price down. He wants to use 150,000 per year for his own luxury PHEV and sell the rest to other EV companies like Tesla and Phoenix. He apparently wants to get this car on the road by the end of 2009. Hey Malcolm! Call us when you have keys to turn over.
[Source: Business Week]
Given Bricklin's selective knowledge of the history of the business he is in and the history of many of his own enterprises (Bricklin Motors, Yugo, his abortive tie-up with Chery), any pronouncements he makes about his latest venture need to be taken with a huge block of salt until there are actual vehicles for us to evaluate. In the meantime he plans to invest in a plant in China to build a quarter million battery packs per year in order to get the volumes up and the unit price down. He wants to use 150,000 per year for his own luxury PHEV and sell the rest to other EV companies like Tesla and Phoenix. He apparently wants to get this car on the road by the end of 2009. Hey Malcolm! Call us when you have keys to turn over.
[Source: Business Week]
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