No company has embodied Washington’s hope for an American-built electric vehicle business like A123 Systems. The Massachusetts-based company was supposed to become the leading home-grown supplier of lithium-ion batteries for automakers in the United States and around the world — fueled in part by a $249 million grant from the Obama administration. Today, A123 Systems filed for bankruptcy, saying much of its assets would be sold after losing $857 million over the past several years.
Read the whole thing if you’re curious why they failed. The National Legal and Policy Center has a detailed backstory on their checkered history and downward death spiral.
