Bloomberg News report
NEW YORK (Oct. 2, 2014) — GreenTech Automotive Inc., maker of battery-powered cars previously led by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, raised $47 million in an equity round.
Ninety-four investors contributed to the financing, according to a filing Sept. 29 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The unit of McLean, Va.-based WM GreenTech Automotive Corp. had sought as much as $60 million.
Sean McCabe, a GreenTech Automotive spokesman who works for the Pinkston Group, declined to provide additional information on the funding round when reached by phone.
Mr. McAuliffe founded the company in 2009 with a plan to build 1 million vehicles a year. Now, it has a more modest goal of a few thousand low-speed “neighborhood” vehicles a year.
Last month, GreenTech said it has completed construction of its delayed assembly plant in Tunica, Miss., south of Memphis, Tenn. The company expected to begin production in the fourth quarter of this year.
Mr. McAuliffe resigned as chairman in December 2012 to focus on a gubernatorial race against Ken Cuccinelli, who had made an issue of GreenTech Automotive being subpoenaed by the federal government for records linked to using a visa program to lure foreign investors. Mr. Cuccinelli, then the state's attorney general, lost to Mr. McAuliffe as Democrats swept the state's top offices.
This Bloomberg News report appeared on the website of Automotive News, a Detroit-based sister publication of Tire Business.