The company may expand the round to $66.3 million, according to a recent regulatory filing.
Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond has joined V-Vehicle’s board of directors, where he will sit alongside Kleiner Perkins Partners Ray Lane (who is also chairman of V-Vehicle) and John Doerr and V-Vehicle founder Frank Varasano. Varasano is a former vice president of business software giant Oracle Corp., where Lane served as president and COO before joining Kleiner Perkins.
The Series B funding augments a $20 million Series A round the company had already raised from private investors.
San Diego-based V-Vehicle has also secured $82 million in incentives from Louisiana state and local governments to support the company’s planned launch of a manufacturing plant in Monroe, La., according to reports. The company cut a deal with the owners of a former
The state economic development department said the car factory, scheduled to open next year after a $100 million revamping, is expected to ultimately employ about 1,400 people who will assemble V-Vehicle’s car, the details of which the company has not yet disclosed. What is known is that Tom Matano, who design the Mazda Miata, is leading the design team at V-Vehicle.
The company may get help beyond state and local government support. It has also applied for $340 million in federal loans.
Google may be the most aggressive investor in next-generation automobiles. Company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are backers of electric sports car company
Google also launched an investment program targeted at making rechargeable cars a part of the future. It gave $200,000 to California Cars, a non-profit that promotes plug-in electric hybrid vehicles. It also gave another $200,000 to California’s Electrical Power Research Institute to support the group’s research around electric cars, according to reports.
Kleiner Perkins has also made its fair share of car-related investments. It backed plug-in electric hybrid maker