Miata Designer, Others Form Company To Build New Fuel-Efficient Car

Billionaire Backers Say Vehicle Will Be Environmentally Friendly, "Iconic" and a Fuel Miser

To say the details are sketchy is to be charitable -- they're pretty much nonexistent -- but what we can tell you is that there's a new car company forming with the promise to build a new "high-quality, environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient car for the U.S. market."

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Screen grab from promotional video (link below) may hint at interior design of V-Vehicle's proposed new car.

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Oh, and it will run on gas or, perhaps, natural gas given that one major backer is former oilman turned natural gas investor T. Boone Pickens. It also, backers said, will have an iconic design by famed Mazda Miata designer and former Mazda North American design chief Tom Matano.

In addition to Pickens, V-Vehicle is backed by a cadre of high-powered investors including venture capitalists John Doerr and Ray Lane, of the Silicon Valley-based investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Kleiner Perkins, you might recall, also has pumped money into plug-in hybrid start-up Fisker Automotive and cellulosic ethanol pioneer Mascoma Corp.

The car company, called V-Vehicle Co., was started in 2006 in San Diego, California., where it will remain based, according to statements made during ceremonies today in Louisiana.

The car is to be built in a former automotive headlight plant in Monroe, Louisiana, that once belonged to General Motors.

Ray Varasano, former vice president of business software giant Oracle Corp., is V-Vehicle's founder and chief executive; investor Lane will be chairman of the board.

The state economic development department said the car factory, scheduled to open next year after a $100 million revamping, is expected to ultimately employ about 1,400 people who will assemble V-Vehicle's so-far mysterious car.

Stay tuned, and follow this link to view a promotional video on the project posted on the Louisiana Economic Development agency's Web site.

Posted by

John O'Dell June 17, 2009, 2:13 PM

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Fuel Economy, V-Vehicles

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Louisiana Car Company, New Car Maker, V-Vehicles