BG Automotive Group has ambitious goal

Thanks to tips sent by some of our readers, we learned of a new electric car company today named BG Automotive Group. We dug out our deerstalker and magnifying glass and soon found a set of footsteps in the form of comments with links back to a simple one page website promoting an ambitious-sounding program. According to the site, BG (Be Green) is planning to begin its electric-car career with neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) this October and are now accepting $250 deposits for the airbag-equipped $15,995 cars. But that's just the beginning. "High Speed" vehicles are planned for mid-2009 and eventually the line up is meant to include minivans, trucks, buses, maintenance/utility vehicles and touring vans. We were starting to wonder if this wasn't just another Spark EV type scheme until we hit on a freshly printed article on the project.

The Philadelphia Inquirer talked with the steel wholesaling man behind the ambition, Barry D. Bernsten, on Monday and revealed the true scope of the aspirations of BG Automotive Group. They are shopping now for a 200,000 sq.ft. facility in which to begin converting the first 4,000 vehicles planned for import this year. Mr Bernsten feels that with the help of Asian auto suppliers and "improved U.S. battery technology", they should be able to bypass the large auto makers who should have been mass producing all-electrics by now. As we have seen, starting a new electric car company is not easy. We wish him luck. As for those of you considering making a purchase from BG, caveat emptor! Thanks to everyone for the tip!

[Source: Philadelphia Inquirer]