When Mr Secretary is investing in Electric cars we can be more assured that the Green Mobility Revolution is serious and will not be killed by Oil lobby. Place is getting crowded with names from Warren Buffet to John Doerr and now Henry Paulson adds a few bucks. With Goldman Sachs turned bullish on commodities all these moves is like an open trading book with bet on falling US Dollar and rising demand in commodity space. You can never be sure in anything, but it is a nice twist to our Next Big Thing story.
"China has became number one auto market in the world and shows impressive growth. Chinese companies are on a shopping spree in the resource world. Asia has its own ambitions to play Next Industrial revolution, starting from commodity side"
"You don’t need a Goldman Sachs connection to invest in Coda Automotive, an electric car start-up based in California, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.
Coda recently announced that it had raised $24 million, with an undisclosed portion coming from its new advisory board member, Henry M. Paulson, the former Treasury secretary, who, before that role, was the chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs.
Coda’s chief executive, Kevin Czinger, is a former Goldman Sachs executive director, leaving in 1995. Mr. Czinger said in an interview that he brought Mr. Paulson into the company because he had “an interest in the environment and in China, plus he saw the business opportunity.”
Coda’s co-chairman, Steven Heller, is also a Goldman Sachs man. Until his retirement in 2002, he had served as the head of global mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs and reported to Mr. Paulson. “He was my boss for many years, and I’ve known him for 20 years,” Mr. Heller said in an interview. “He’s a tough, rational investor who understands our business model and our strategy and wants to be part of it.”
Mr. Paulson was not available for comment, but he said in a statement: “Coda’s noncapital intensive business model and globally collaborative partnership strategy persuaded me to join the advisory board.”
The Coda electric car is based on the Saibao sedan from the Hafei Automobile Group in China. Coda has a joint venture agreement with its Chinese battery supplier, Tianjin Lishen Battery, but in June Coda said it would also seek federal funding to establish an American battery factory with Yardney Technical Products (which developed batteries for the B-2 bomber and NASA’s Mars exploration vehicles). Coda plans to have its car on the market (initially only in California) next year."
Coda recently announced that it had raised $24 million, with an undisclosed portion coming from its new advisory board member, Henry M. Paulson, the former Treasury secretary, who, before that role, was the chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs.
Coda’s chief executive, Kevin Czinger, is a former Goldman Sachs executive director, leaving in 1995. Mr. Czinger said in an interview that he brought Mr. Paulson into the company because he had “an interest in the environment and in China, plus he saw the business opportunity.”
Coda’s co-chairman, Steven Heller, is also a Goldman Sachs man. Until his retirement in 2002, he had served as the head of global mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs and reported to Mr. Paulson. “He was my boss for many years, and I’ve known him for 20 years,” Mr. Heller said in an interview. “He’s a tough, rational investor who understands our business model and our strategy and wants to be part of it.”
Mr. Paulson was not available for comment, but he said in a statement: “Coda’s noncapital intensive business model and globally collaborative partnership strategy persuaded me to join the advisory board.”
The Coda electric car is based on the Saibao sedan from the Hafei Automobile Group in China. Coda has a joint venture agreement with its Chinese battery supplier, Tianjin Lishen Battery, but in June Coda said it would also seek federal funding to establish an American battery factory with Yardney Technical Products (which developed batteries for the B-2 bomber and NASA’s Mars exploration vehicles). Coda plans to have its car on the market (initially only in California) next year."
Thanks for sharing... I can't wait to get a electric car myself...
ReplyDeleteWe're just waiting for a few more to get on the market and it will be time to replace our Honda... I'm hoping that the volt will be a good choice or the prius... the rebates are definitely a great step in putting more people in these cars.
If just saw this today as well (hybrid government rebate - http://www.hybridmile.com/news/government-rebate-hybrid/) I hope that these get extended into 2010 and really they should be available till every single gas car is off the road.