Under the radar: What's up with Phoenix Motorcars and bankruptcy?
Remember when Phoenix Motorcars was trying to get attention for their all-electric SUT with their friend Ed Begley, Jr.? Man that was a long time ago. We haven't heard an official statement from the company since they declared "We have not abandoned the alternative fuels transportation space" back in April. One reason for the silence: the company was in bankruptcy. We heard through the grapevine earlier this summer that Phoenix was out of bankruptcy, but repeated calls and emails to Phoenix to confirm or deny this report have gone unanswered. Phoenix has long billed itself as "Phoenix MC, Inc., a Delaware Corporation and a California based electric vehicle company doing business as 'Phoenix Motorcars,'" but we got a tip recently that things may be different now. Anonymous sent us an email saying that "Did some research on Phoenix Motorcars. Looks like they (the assets and staff) were purchased by Al Yousuf LLC in August 2009. The new company is Phoenix Cars LLC in Delaware but still operating as Phoenix Motorcars in California. Rumor is that they are heading into stealth mode to finish their SUT and also develop a few new products." We couldn't verify this, but are kind of hoping that posting this will either prompt Phoenix to finally respond to our requests for information or maybe get some more information sent our way. Got some?
Dubai investor Eqbal Al Yousuf, who has also invested in Zap, has a history with Phoenix that dates back to at least 2007. Al Yousuf, who is president of Al Yousuf, LLC, was named to the Phoenix board in March 2008. Thanks to Anonymous for the tip!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nixon 1:34AM (9/19/2009)
If they are smart, they will keep quiet and stay out of the grinder that is the EV news cycle of the internet. They already have name recognition, they don't need to hump press for buzz.
If they are smart, they are best just announcing one day that they have a row of them for sale at each of their dealerships, so come on down and buy one. Free hotdogs, and a dunk tank for the salesmen. Three free throws with each purchase. Regular car lot sales stuff.
Reply
jpm 6:52PM (9/18/2009)
Looks like Mr. Yousuf chose three great companies; Zap, Pheonix, and Altair to invest in...not.
Reply
Andy 3:54AM (9/19/2009)
Yup... they all starting to look like lame ducks to me. The other Altair auto connection is Lightening GT, who have also vanished off the radar.
I was wondering if Mr Yousef is just one of those people who like to support an underdog. I believe he is well connected or extravagantly rich in his own right. He can afford to play. Any conspiracy theories about Arab oil money destroying EV's must be bogus. Killing zap might do EV's a favor.
I'm still hoping something of value comes of all this. The Altair recharge capability is a game changer even if the energy density is a bit low. Any vehicles are going to be beefy and high powered for sure.
jpm 4:01AM (9/19/2009)
Agreed and well said. It seems that Altair is never going to get off the ground. They're "auto" partnerships keep dieing off and they're stock price has been hovering around $1 for a year now. Somethings not right.
JWVGOETHE 4:10PM (9/19/2009)
actually ive met Yousuf in his dubai HQ....seems he had plans to beef up Zaps and deploy them in the UAE as a MSV of sorts, and liked the tech of Altair
his money is not from oil, fyi
odd tho that he did a substantial degree of due dilligence w/ Zap, and STILL bought into it..
Reply
Chris M 6:44PM (9/20/2009)
Well, bankruptcy was easily predictable once we found out that the batteries alone cost more than the planned sales price for their vehicle, and they hoped to make up the difference by selling "ZEV credits" to other auto makers. The other auto makers decided to make their own plug-ins and were not willing to pay much if anything for ZEV credits, which of course was the death knell for Phoenix Motors. I now wonder who will pick up the pieces.
Lightning Motors may suffer the same fate, in spite of a more realistic pricing structure. Tesla Motors has similar performance to Lightning but with longer driving range and a much lower price, due to less expensive but higher energy density LiIon batteries, and Tesla has been in production for nearly a year, while Lightning is struggling to get their first production model built. Again, the biggest problem for Lightning is the high cost but modest energy density of the Altairnano batteries.
The Altairnano batteries are far too expensive for mass market EVs, and Altairnano must dramatically reduce prices to have any hope of capturing any portion of the EV market. Unfortunately, Altairnano was originally set up to develop and produce pharmaceuticals, their foray into batteries was a fluke, and they just aren't used to cutting prices or producing bargains. Altairnano is more likely to drop out of the battery market than offer a cost competitive product.
Considering the high power, durability and high cycle count but modest energy density of the Altairnano battery, they are much better suited for the hybrid and plug-in hybrid use, but only if the price is reduced to be competitive to NiMH. The Altairnano battery could also be a worthy substitute for ultracaps for "power buffering" other EV battery packs.
Reply