Now he's given up. "I am exhausted and throwing in the towel," Bernsten told me Tuesday. "Let China control the affordable electric-vehicle market. I'm going back to selling steel."
How come electric carmakers need government money? In the boom years, Bernsten was able to raise hundreds of millions for private metalworks in Eastern Europe. But today's wary investors mostly "want to see state or federal support," he told me. Billionaire Warren Buffett is investing in car-battery developer BYD - which is based in China. Unlike banks and most private-equity funds, "Buffett can afford to gamble. I'm sure it will pay off," Bernsten said.
What is our government doing? The Energy Department is lending a half-billion dollars each to high-priced electric sports and performance car developers, Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive, plus billions more for Ford and Nissan to cut vehicle weights and test advanced hybrids. Other taxpayer-subsidized automakers are preparing cars like the mid-priced Chevy Volt for the market as early as next year.
Bernsten had applied for up to $150 million in loans to finance six plants that would stamp out thousands of vehicles in the niche above cheap imported vehicles by installing U.S. operating parts with American labor.
He met with low-level state officials in Pennsylvania, and with the governors of Delaware and Rhode Island, which he said offered "tax incentives, abatements, land" in hopes of landing hundreds of BG assembly jobs.
But the big-money Department of Energy demanded "performance tests that cost many millions," plus extensive environmental tests on the modern warehouse sites selected for Bernsten by the Philadelphia office of Grubb & Ellis. A DOE spokeswoman had no comment on BG.
