• Carbon Motors Goes To Bankruptcy Auction
    11 replies, posted
[quote]NDIANAPOLIS — No matter what it sells for, it will always be the $7 million car. Crowds ooh'ed and ah'ed when the vehicle was unveiled, but today the high-tech police car prototype that Carbon Motors used to woo investors — including government officials who awarded the company $7 million in public grants — is all the bankrupt startup has left. The vehicle isn't likely to fetch anywhere near the amount state and local governments invested — nor is it likely to put much of a dent in the $21.7 million the company owes private vendors and investors. [...] The E-7 was supposed to be the first car of its kind — a vehicle built especially for law enforcement. According to the company, the E-7 can run on bio-diesel fuel and features an automatic license-plate-recognition system, touch-screen computers, shotgun mounts, and cutaway seats that make room for a police officer's heavy belt. It has a top speed greater than 150 mph and can go from zero to 60 in 6.5 seconds, according to the company. [...] Carbon Motors filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in June, listing $21.7 million in liabilities and $18,976 in assets. Creditors include German car company BMW, which provided the vehicle's platform, and Troy, Mich.-based Inteva Products. Those suppliers say Carbon Motors owes them together more than $3 million. Carbon Motors was founded by former Ford executive William Santana Li and former police officer Stacy Dean Stephens. In 2009, they announced their decision to locate their startup in Connersville, a city once nicknamed "Little Detroit" that had been ravaged by factory closings. Thousands of the town's 13,000 residents gathered to welcome the company and take in the shiny high-tech police car. [/quote] [url]http://www.policeone.com/police-products/vehicles/articles/6606853-Failed-Carbon-Motors-super-squad-prototype-goes-to-auction/[/url] The vehicle was way too expensive anyway. No department other than the largest ones could afford the vehicle at $150,000 a piece compared to $44,000 that the Ford PI costs (includes lights, computers, etc). Too risky of a move in a well developed market during a bad economics
so can I buy the car then?
Maybe some prop company could buy one of these for use in the movies. Sounds pretty badass. [t]http://robotmonkeys.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/20100315_car1.jpg[/t]
Too bad its not even street legal.
Any pictures?
It looks like something you would see as a squad car in robocop.
[QUOTE=OvB;42925240]It looks like something you would see as a squad car in robocop.[/QUOTE] It looks like it has those light things every where. I bet it looks like a mobile rave party when it gets called into action and zips past you. :v:
[QUOTE=snookypookums;42925160]Maybe some prop company could buy one of these for use in the movies. Sounds pretty badass. [t]http://robotmonkeys.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/20100315_car1.jpg[/t][/QUOTE] You want the back door the other way so if the back and front door are open then anyone in the back cant rush the front.
[QUOTE=Ithon;42925472]You want the back door the other way so if the back and front door are open then anyone in the back cant rush the front.[/QUOTE] they set the door like that so it could swing way open so it's easier to get someone in there. is rushing that much of an issue? How hard is it to close the other door if that's a worry also there's a walkthrough video of the car here- [url]http://www.ibj.com/carbon-motors-prototype-police-car-is-crammed-with-technology/PARAMS/article/19310[/url] [quote]Carbon Motors has 13,000 advance orders -- Most patrol cars will roll off the assembly line priced from the mid-$40,000 to the low-$60,000 range, similar to conventional police cars[/quote] what happened to this
How sad, that was one sexy cruiser.
[QUOTE=snookypookums;42925259]It looks like it has those light things every where. I bet it looks like a mobile rave party when it gets called into action and zips past you. :v:[/QUOTE] Aftermarket kits have more/better lights. When they announced they were working with Tomar, I wanted to puke. Lightbar/lighthead technology has gone so much farther in the past 6-7 years since they finalized the design. You really could hardly see them outdoors, especially in glaring sun (since they are under a curved dome the glare from the sun makes them literally invisible). [QUOTE=dai;42925864]what happened to this[/QUOTE] They weren't paid orders; the main reason they failed is because they spent so much damn money, kept showing off the same prototype for years but never releasing it, and they relied on a DOE grant that they didn't get.
-snip gg automerge-
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