V-Vehicle's DOE $250m loan application still in limbo, so $87m in state incentives are lost

We have yet to see anything more from V-Vehicle Co. – the secretive start-up automaker that came out of stealth mode last summer with a big plan to build high-mileage, environmentally friendly vehicles – than the teaser image you see above and a short video (watch it here). We heard that the company has been operating since 2006 and has financial backing from T. Boone Pickens, Al Gore and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers and that we could see production vehicles as early as the end of 2010/beginning of 2011.

Well, whatever is happening in Louisiana, where V-Vehicle is hoping to make cars at an idled GM plant, it appears things aren't running smoothly. NOLA.com is reporting that the company has missed a deadline to qualify for $87 million in state incentives because it did not get approval for a federally backed loan in time. V-Vehicle is asking the Department of Energy for $250 million in low-interest Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program loans and had expected to hear back from the DOE last fall. Company officials now say they expect things to be cleared up before the month is over and that V-Vehicles is in "the final stage of the ATVM loan process." We'll see.

[Source: NOLA.com via TheCarConnection]