Future of Anderson's Bright Automotive depends upon $450 million in federal loans

WASHINGTON - Anderson-based Bright Automotive gave Washington a full sensory experience during the launch of its plug-in hybrid, the Idea.

Observers saw the sleek aluminum panels, felt the cushy padding of the driver's seat and smelled that car-of-the-future smell. But taking the Idea from prototype to showroom is a more elusive matter.

Bright has applied for $450 million in loans as part of the Section 136 Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program. That loan could be the difference between the production of 50,000 vehicles per year by 2013 and a start-up that goes nowhere.

"The big competitive advantage that Bright has is that it's ready to go now," said Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Indiana, during the Bright event on Tuesday. "It's not a concept on a drawing board, it's not a theory. They're able to produce tens of thousands of vehicles starting next year, and I'm unaware of any other company that can get up to scale that fast.

"It's real, it's now, it's ready to go and we have to help them do that."

Bayh has written a letter asking Energy Secretary Steven Chu to make funding available to developers of lithium-ion batteries and hybrid-electric vehicles. And while Bayh's letter does not mention Bright by name, it makes clear reference to similar projects.

"The U.S. invented the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) and the lithium-ion battery," Bayh writes. "But Asia now manufactures the vast majority of lithium-ion batteries and a Chinese automaker rolled out the first mass-produced PHEV."

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, also came out in support of Bright on Tuesday. He said the energy department is reviewing projects submitted under the loan program and expects more activity as the agency fleshes out its staff.

"Bright company is very clearly an applicant," Lugar said. "They're aware of us and of Bright, but the decision-making hasn't occurred and we hope that will happen soon."

But mere approval of the loan might not be enough to keep Bright local. Chuck Staley, president and CEO of the Flagship Enterprise Center, which has nurtured Bright for more than 15 months, said the project is "ours to lose."

Lugar, for one, sees reason for Bright to stay right where they are.

"Obviously, we hope that Bright will put production plants in Indiana," he said. "But it's a free country. We have skilled people in Indiana, who have been in the automotive industry and transportation, generally. We have human capital that I doubt can be replicated very easily anywhere else."

Anderson has a long history of advanced electrical engineering, dating back to the Remy brothers and continuing through Guide Corp. and Delphi. Electrical components for General Motors Corp.'s electric vehicle, the EV1, were even made at Plant 18.

Michael Brylawski, vice president of corporate strategy for Bright, said Anderson has been instrumental in fostering the development of Bright and the Idea. The base of automotive knowledge allowed Bright President and CEO John Waters to develop ideas he developed at the non-profit Rocky Mountain Institute and put them on the road.

"(In) Anderson and Indiana there's a cluster of people who know how to make vehicles and make electric vehicles," he said. "I mean, the EV1 was born in Indiana, all the real innovations. All the batteries, all the drive systems, motors were in Indiana.

"When you take the vision of RMI with the pragmatism of Anderson, Indiana, especially with electrification, you get something like Bright Automotive."

On Wednesday, Ted Turner and members of the U.N. Foundation Board of Directors met with Bright officials to discuss the Idea. It seems the Idea is becoming known all over the world. But nowhere will its future be more closely watched than in Anderson.