I believe it will still happen. They are now doing with the financing what they have been doing all along with the vehicle: rely on specialist in that area instead of doing it themselves. Specialists are always better than amateurs.
In fact, now that I think of it, financing is often the most critical part of any start up company. Why in the world did they try to do it themselves on such a critical area. They are engineers. They are amateurs when it comes to finance and it shows. I am much more optimistic now that they have experts handling finances as it should have been from the beginning.
Is there a "control" issue in this company?
Look at the Board:
James. Holden is the former Chief Executive Officer of DaimlerChrysler, where he worked in various leadership positions for 19 years. His roles included Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing responsible for directing all of the automaker’s sales, fleet and marketing organizations in the United States, Mexico and Canada, including Mopar parts operations. In addition, he serves as a director of Sirius XM Radio, Inc., Snap-on, Inc. and Speedway Motorsports. Mr. Holden was a director of Motors Liquidation Company until its dissolution in December 2011. Formerly, Mr. Holden served as a director for Meridian Automotive Systems, Inc.
Ken Way served as the Chief Executive Officer of Lear Corporation from 1988 to September 2000 and Chairman of the Board from 1988 to December 2002. Mr. Way served with Lear Corporation and its predecessor companies for 37 years in various engineering, manufacturing and general management capacities. During his career he has served as a Director for several organizations, including Wesco International Inc., Wesco Distribution, Inc., CMS Energy Corporation, Consumers Energy Company of Consumers Gas Group, North American Rubber Inc., Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (formerly, Cooper- Standard Automotive Inc.), Cooper-Standard Automotive NC L.L.C. and Cooper-Standard Automotive FHS Inc., United Way Cancer Institute, Business Leaders for Michigan, RP Scherer Corporation, Lear Corp., Comerica Inc. (Holding Company of Comerica Bank), Catalent Pharma Solutions Inc., and Detroit Renaissance, He is a Trustee of Kettering University
Stuart Lichter is founder, President and Chairman of the Board for IRG, LLC. He oversees all critical aspects of the business, including acquisitions, leasing, and property management at IRG. Mr. Lichter has held positions with General Services Administration of the United States Government, Mortgage Loan Department of New York Life Insurance Company, Marine Midland and started Quadrelle Realty Services, Inc. In recent years, he has acquired, in various forms and partnerships, over 100 industrial and commercial properties with a total size in excess of 100,000,000 square feet-making the portfolio the largest private holding of industrial and commercial real estate in the nation. Mr. Lichter is a national leader in transforming former military bases and industrial sites into thriving retail, residential and business.
Hari Iyer is Chairman & CEO of Pamban Energy Systems, a company specializing in enhanced oil recovery using advanced simulation tools. He has nearly 25 years of business strategy, product development and operations experience in the automotive industry.
Before Pamban Energy, Mr. Iyer was Executive Vice President at Envia Systems. At Envia, he led all customer-facing commercialization and scale-up efforts. Prior to Envia, Mr. Iyer was Vice President, Engineering at Next Autoworks Company, a Kleiner Perkins funded automotive startup. At Next Autoworks, he led the creation of a North American auto industry first vehicle development process, which involved true supplier collaboration of more than 65 major Tier-1 and Tier-2 suppliers. Before that, Mr. Iyer was co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Elio Engineering, a product development firm specializing in automotive and clean tech applications. Prior to Elio, Mr. Iyer was an engineering analyst at Johnson Controls, working with the various automotive component groups and their OEM customers.
David C. Schembri previously was the President of smart USA, a Penske Automotive Group company. He was responsible for the successful launch of smart USA (a division of Mercedes-Benz), which included establishing and maintaining a sales and service retail network, customer relations, logistics, advertising, marketing, PR, government relations, and a parts distribution network.
Mr. Schembri has over 35 years of automotive experience. The majority of his career was realized in various executive positions at Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen. While at Mercedes Benz, Dave served as both the Vice President of Sales and Vice President of Marketing. During his tenure, Schembri was responsible for several successful product launches while the company recorded 11 consecutive record years in new vehicle sales. In addition to his corporate responsibilities, Mr. Schembri served on the Board of Directors for the Boomer Esiason Foundation (BEF) in their effort to raise funds for research to find a cure for cystic fibrosis