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Department of Energy says ‘no’ to Carbon Motors’ loan request for police car

 

Published March 07, 2012

FoxNews.com

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Carbon Motors

The police car of the future has hit a major bump in the road.

Carbon Motors announced Wednesday that the Department of Energy has informed the Indiana-based startup automaker that it is no longer considering its $310 million loan application to the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program.

The company planned to use the money to produce a purpose-built, fuel-efficient law enforcement vehicle called the E7 for police and homeland security use.

Carbon Motors spokesman Stacy Stephens tells FoxNews.com that the company was blindsided by the decision after being engaged in positive discussions with the government agency for the past 30 months, having recently been told by officials that it was “the number one priority of the Department of Energy.”

When Energy Secretary Steven Chu visited Indianapolis on Monday, he told reporters that the department wanted to go forward with the loan but that it has “a responsibility to the taxpayers and they need to make sure it’s written in the statute that there’s a reasonable chance of repayment,” according to WIBC radio.

Stephens says that the company has sourced over $200 million in private matching funds as part of the loan requirements and began constructing a new headquarters building in Connersville, Ind., where the car was to be manufactured at a former brownfield site, creating over 1,500 jobs.

The automaker’s CEO, William Santana Li, says his company is outraged by what it calls a “political decision in a highly charged, election-year environment,” caused by the fallout from the bankruptcy of Energy loan recipient Solyndra last fall.

The move by the Energy Department comes one week after another Indiana startup working on a plug-in hybrid van, Bright Automotive, closed down after dropping its pursuit of a similar loan it originally applied for in 2008, saying it could no longer wait for the agency to act on the application.

Carbon Motors has no plans to shut down at this point and says it is “examining strategic and financing alternatives.”

“We were hit right square in the nose from the federal government and need to dust off and regroup,” Stephens says.

VoiceVault™ Advanced Wireless Microphone Now Available from Digital Ally


VoiceVaultScene

VoiceVault Advanced Wireless Microphone Now Available With Digital Ally’s DVM-500Plus In-Car Video System

Digital Ally, Inc., which develops and sells advanced law enforcement video systems, speed guns and fleet event recorders, announced that all new orders of the DVM-500Plus In-Car Video System will now include the VoiceVault Advanced Wireless Microphone at no additional cost to the customer.

Previously only available with the DVM-750 In-Car Video System, the VoiceVault offers extended range, voice optimization and noise filtering, and fully digital audio transmission with true frequency hopping technology as well as the industry-first feature of recording audio notes and evidence onto On-Board Solid State Memory when the signal to the in-car video system is interrupted. The VoiceVault also records its own metadata to later link with recordings from the in-car video system for the same incidents when loaded into Digital Ally’s VideoManager software.

For more information, contact Digital Ally at 800-440-4947, sales@digitalallyinc.com or visit www.digitalallyinc.com.

About Digital Ally, Inc.

Digital Ally provides a complete line of digital in-car video systems; a waterproof digital video system that is modular to fit motorcycles, boats, or other motorized vehicle; compact worn or mounted video system; digital video flashlight; and LIDAR handheld speed enforcement gun.

Havis IdleRight2™ Minimizes Engine Idle Time and Decreases Vehicle Fuel Consumption

Warminster, Pa. December 28, 2011

The U.S. Department of Energy states that cars, trucks and heavy-duty vehicles waste more than six billion gallons of diesel fuel and gasoline each year – without even moving. In an effort to minimize vehicle idling and fuel consumption, Havis Inc. announced today the launch of IdleRight2, the next generation of the company’s idle reduction and fuel management system.

IdleRight2 minimizes idle time by monitoring the battery’s voltage while the vehicle is turned off and electronics, such as light bars, radios and computers, are still on. When the battery voltage drops to a pre-set level, the system triggers the remote starter to run the engine long enough for the battery to recharge, then turns the vehicle off again. This process significantly cuts down on the vehicle’s idle time while mission critical electronics are in use.

In 2009, the Glastonbury Police Department in Glastonbury, Conn., tested the original IdleRight system to calculate how much idle time and fuel they saved with this system. During the test, a vehicle ran for four hours with all of its emergency lights activated. Before IdleRight was installed, the vehicle idled for the entire four-hour period and wasted 2.80 gallons of fuel. With IdleRight installed, that same vehicle’s idle time dropped to just 40 minutes, using only 0.46 gallons of fuel.

Based on this example, if a department pays an average of $3.50 per gallon of gas and utilizes 100 vehicles that idle 25 percent of the time, the department could save over $445,000 per year in fuel alone with the IdleRight system.

Reducing idle time is the key to saving fuel, preventing unnecessary engine wear, and decreasing harmful emissions. According to the Ford Crown Victoria Owner’s Guide, every hour of idling is equivalent to approximately 33 miles of driving. For police cars and utility trucks that idle at emergency and construction scenes, one eight-hour shift can add 264 miles of wear and tear to each of these stationary vehicles.

This latest IdleRight system is designed to work with many popular after-market remote starters, which greatly simplified installation and allowed Havis to significantly lower the product’s price.

IdleRight2 features an LED diagnostics system that not only shows what state the unit is in, but also allows customers to quantify their savings by outputting the number of idle hours saved. This data can then be plugged into the Return on Investment (ROI) Calculator (located at http://idleright.havis.com/savings.html) to determine total savings in fuel, money, miles and maintenance.

With increasing gas prices and tighter budgets, companies and municipalities can depend on IdleRight2 to reduce fuel consumption and vehicle maintenance costs. This product greatly extends the service life of vehicles, and the simplicity of the new system makes it easy to install and use in any fleet.

In addition to the IdleRight2, Havis offers another solution to manage vehicle power and fuel consumption – ChargeGuard® Auto Shut-off Timer. ChargeGuard prevents vehicle battery drain, extends battery life, and provides complete voltage protection for expensive electronics. The device also reduces fuel costs by running equipment after the engine has been turned off.

Havis strives to develop innovative power management and idle reduction solutions to further the global green initiative and to save companies from the cost of wasted fuel and excessive vehicle wear and tear. For more information on IdleRight2, please visit http://idleright.havis.com.

About Havis

Havis Inc. is a privately held company that manufactures in-vehicle mobile office solutions for public safety, public works, government agencies and mobile professionals. For over 80 years, the Havis mission has been to increase mobile worker productivity with industry-leading products that are built to the highest safety and quality standards and are designed with comfort in mind. Headquartered in Warminster, Pa., with an additional location in Plymouth, Mich., Havis currently employs 175 people. For more information on Havis, please call 1-800-524-9900 or visit http://www.havis.com.

Contact:

Andrea Felice
Havis, Inc. | Marketing
Phone: 215-957-0720 ext. 3198
E-mail: media(at)havis(dot)com
http://www.havis.com