End of the Road

In 2008 we first blogged about Carbon Motors and their ambitious plans to manufacture and sell a purpose-built police car.  In 2012 we blogged about Carbon Motors again, concerning their having been denied a $310 million Department of Energy loan under the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program.

It appears now that the denial of that loan dealt a death blow to Carbon Motors.  The company has allowed the lease to expire on their manufacturing facility, the employees are gone, and the company web site has been shut down.

Carbon had leased office and factory space in a former Visteon Corporation plant in Connersville, Indiana, and claimed to have taken thousands of orders for its its E7 diesel-powered police cruiser.  But at the end of March, the lease was not renewed.

After the DOE loan was denied, Carbon tried to raise addition money by unveiling a purpose-built riot van, but nothing further appears to have come of those plans.

Carbon Motors has sputtered to a stop before ever getting on the road.

That's a Fact

Recently, in a town not far from the home of the Badge Company of New Jersey, negotiations were completed on a new contract with the local police union.

As with all such contract negotiations, there were competing interests to be served, including the need to keep any increase in the municipal budget below the cap of 2% as directed by the governor.

The negotiations were handled by representatives of the union and representatives of the town, but with a distinction as noted by one of the town’s elected councilmen: “We did not use lawyers,” he said.  “They cost money.”