Kleiner Perkins, T. Boone Back Auto Startup V-Vehicle
It’s about time two of greentech’s highest-profile investors got together on a deal. This afternoon V-Vehicle, an auto startup that was founded in 2006, came out of stealth and unveiled that it has gained investment from the venture capitalists at Kleiner Perkins — John Doerr and Ray Lane — along with hedge fund manager and former oil baron T. Boone Pickens. V-Vehicle and its investors aren’t saying much of anything about the technology used (though it sounds like a more efficient internal combustion-based car), only that the car would be designed in a new way, would be “high quality, environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient.”
More than a pure technology play, the venture sounds like it’s using the current lack of innovation and good design in the U.S. auto industry to offer a better-designed, more efficient American-made car. Throughout a promotional video founder and CEO Frank Varasano, who hails from Oracle and Booz Allen Hamilton, emphasized that V-Vehicle is “a new American car company;” Kleiner’s Ray Lane called it “a holistic change” from the current U.S. car industry. If the play is more about design and marketing than technology, we’ll see if the investors’ star power in the greentech world will help it actually sell cars in the consumer market (T. Boone has certainly made the crossover to mainstream quite nicely.) It may also help that the father of the Miata, Tom Matano, is leading the vehicle design team.
T. Boone Pickens’ involvement is interesting, too, as the wind investor has largely been focusing on pushing natural gas vehicles. Part of his Pickens Plan is to replace a chunk of foreign oil consumption with domestic natural gas for transportation. If you look at the funds coming out of the stimulus package for new transportation (not much for natural gas vehicles) and new green car ventures being launched (I’ve heard of just a couple working on natural gas vehicles), you’ll start to see that natural gas vehicles aren’t really capturing investment dollars or mindshare from entrepreneurs. While V-Vehicle could be working on a natural gas vehicle, if it’s going to sell to mainstream consumers it probably isn’t. Perhaps a move by Pickens to back a more efficient vehicle that runs on gas (or even an electric vehicle) coincides with a move away from his natural gas vehicle mantra.
Kleiner also has other auto-related startups, including electric sports car maker Fisker Automotive, a stealthy lithium-ion battery company, and reportedly also energy storage startup EEStor. But going after the mainstream U.S.-made car market is its biggest play in green cars to date.
Even though V-Vehicle says it’ll be a new kind of car company, it’s still using the tactics of Detroit: knocking on government doors. The company is retooling a factory in Monroe, La., that it says will create more than 1,400 jobs. By proposing to retool the former Guide headlamp facility in Monroe (instead of building a brand-new facility), it can earn points from the DOE for loans it has requested under the $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program.
Photos from V-Vehicle’s promotional video.
I’d like to clarify a bit on the natural gas portion of the Pickens Plan.
For the most part the plan advocates switching heavy transportation trucks to natural gas fuel. It is domestic and it is really the only viable, cleaner alternative fuel for heavy trucks.
Another car company? Why?
T. Boone Pickens (Natural Gas tycoon) funding new Natural Gas Car company. No surprises there :D
It’s not going to be a natural gas car to start, and maybe not ever. They’re saying that’s one possibility down the road: http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20090619/NEWS01/906190329
Major flawed assumption about nat gas not being efficient, and suggests a more efficient GASOLINE vehicle? Hell, I thougt the problem IS gasoline. So simply making a hybrid CNG car or a Plug-In hybrid CNG car will trump a gasoline version all the way to the American flag. That IS the point of CNG. Near-zero emissions, and much lower CO2 than gasline plus all the fuel dollars stay in the U.S. Come on Ms. Fehrenbacher, you should know better. Refueling at home with CNG and Electricity, nice.
Holly, I’m not sure what your argument or complaint is. The industry needs significant investment to both bring natural gas cars and natural gas fueling infrastructure to market. Biofuels used in internal combustion engines are less investment on infrastructure and vehicles and have the same emissions reductions as CNG. Electric vehicles will require a lot of investment for cars and infrastructure but have a lot better emissions reductions than biofuels and CNG. We have to be realistic about economics.