There's some interesting financial activity going these days in the electric vehicle realm and it wouldn't be surprising to see some consolidation happen soon. In the past year Phoenix Motorcars and Zap have trailed only the Tesla Roadster and Chevy Volt in attention for battery-propelled vehicles. Unfortunately for both companies (and Tesla) revenues have not been in proportion to press coverage and as we all know building a complete vehicle is not a trivial challenge.

Phoenix has just topped up their bank account with $40 million courtesy of Dubai investor Al Yousuf. Only days earlier, Al Yousuf invested a similar quantity in Altairnano Technologies, the battery supplier to Phoenix and prior to that injected $5 million in Zap. We'll be watching the action here, but it's interesting to see a Middle Eastern Investor buying up chunks of electric vehicle and battery startups.

Update: I misread the original source. The amount invested by Al Yousuf in Phoenix has not been disclosed yet. The investment is in the form of convertible debt .

[Source: Green Car Congress, thanks to Domenick for the tip]