# A123 finally runs out of juice and files for bankruptcy



## frodus (Apr 12, 2008)

totally sucks.... If they'd only have seen the opportunity in the DIY EV community, RC community, 12V SLA replacement batteries, etc..... 

I hope JC takes good care of the assets and keeps the production going. Maybe we'll start actually seeing these available to the end user.


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## ndplume (May 31, 2010)

I just saw an article showing that the US Govt invested $279,000,000 in A123. 
I wonder how much of the remaining value of the Assets will be refunded to "the TAX Payers"? 

I wonder if there will be a fire sale (no pun intended :^) on their existing stock?


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## Ziggythewiz (May 16, 2010)

Was it a grant or a loan? You don't get grants back even if things go to plan.

There was a fire sale on A123 stock from IPO to Ch 11...it was a slow burn most of the time, but there were a few flare-ups.


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## dladd (Jun 1, 2011)

It's embarrassing, and increasingly difficult to talk up EV's among folks that I know. Tons of dollars wasted. Our dollars! Just maddening.


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## ndplume (May 31, 2010)

Here is the article. It simply says that these are tax payer subsidized companies. I saw one there, LSP Energy, that was offered 2 Billion! As dLadd says, all these handouts to failing companies draw a negative spin on EV.

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/10/18/president-obamas-taxpayer-backed-green-energy-failures/


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## Ziggythewiz (May 16, 2010)

The proper way to subsidize a company is just to buy their products. No handout, just a transaction. If you buy $1 billion in solar panels or EVs it doesn't matter if the company goes under, you still have $1 billion worth of product.

Just think of the awesome EVs we could build with $2 billion...


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## PhantomPholly (Aug 20, 2008)

> The company received US$249 million grant from the Department of Energy for building battery production facility. As of June 2012, $129M of the grant has been used to build the 550 MWh Livonia plant and the Romulus plant. Remaining untapped $120M grant's expiry date has been extended from end of 2012 to end of 2014.[2] The company laid off 125 workers in December 2011 as demand for partner Fisker's automobiles has been slack.[3]


(from Wikipedia)

The problem here is that they took a marginal improvement to the battery-making process and tried to use it to create a battery-building company, thinking that their "advantage" would be enough to make them profitable.

Had they simply licensed their technology, there would have been no loss and we would all be enjoying this marginal improvement along with many others that have occurred since the company was founded.

Government money seems to encourage poor business thinking.


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