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Wheego needs more cash to produce LiFe EVs, 'living hand-to-mouth' for now
Oh, how the winds of fortune can swirl. Just a few weeks after finally selling its first LiFe electric car to a happy couple in Atlanta, Wheego appears to have suddenly fallen on hard financial times. Very hard times. Speaking to Automotive News, CEO Mike McQuary claimed that his startup's coffers are bare enough to jeopardize future production of Wheego's flagship, battery-powered two-seater: "My constraint is primarily capital. We'll be living hand-to-mouth as we try to get the first cars built. The next 200 will creep out as we raise money." McQuary didn't say how far behind schedule Wheego is at the moment, but part of the problem seems to be finding enough money to buy parts for its $32,995, 100-mile range EVs. The company's plant in California was supposed to produce 200 vehicles a month starting in January, in the hopes of eventually churning out 60,000 a year. Those plans, however, were soon derailed, due to unexpectedly delayed approval from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration -- a setback that also hurt the company's capital raising campaigns. The company is hoping to raise some $15 million with the help of a VC firm in Connecticut, but until it does, Wheego may not be going anywhere.
Couple in Atlanta finally gets a LiFe, courtesy of Wheego
Wheego has, at long last, let its first $32,995, 100-mile range LiFe electric two-seater loose on the public, and added another cute little electric car to the US EV collective. By either stroke-of-luck or sheer coincidence (no way is it intentional), the first of the breed was delivered today, otherwise known as Earth Day, to a couple of lucky owners in the ATL. Good to see Dixieland drivers (who often prefer something with a lift kit and Super Swampers to fuel-efficient subcompacts) bringing cleaner motoring to the derrrty South.
