Chinese electric vehicle startups Byton, Nio and Karma Automotive were among the companies that received the largest COVID-19-related Check Protection Program (PPP) loans in April, and each received loans of between $ 5 million and $ 10 million, according to new data released by the Treasury Department and the Small Business Administration (SBA).
Byton received his loan shortly after laying off hundreds of employees in April, according to the United States government. The company, which is backed by Chinese state-owned automaker First Auto Works, said in its request to the Treasury Department and the Small Business Association (SBA) that the loan would help it retain 387 jobs. But last week, the startup announced that it will suspend operations for at least six months and laid off workers at its North American headquarters.
Nio, who has just received a $ 1 billion bailout from state investment firms in China, got his $ 5 to $ 10 million loan in early April. The company told the US government that the money would help protect 204 jobs at its North American headquarters. Nio previously employed about 600 workers in the United States, but last year he went through several rounds of layoffs.
According to the data, Chinese-backed EV companion Karma Automotive received between $ 5 and $ 10 million. The California company, which emerged from the ashes of the bankruptcy of the original version of hybrid automaker Fisker, has gone through multiple rounds of layoffs in the past year. She told the government that the loan would help her keep 463 jobs on her payroll. Jalopnik He reported shortly before the loan was granted that the company planned to fire more workers.
Two much smaller California auto companies with ties to China also received between $ 350,000 and $ 1 million in PPP funds: Saleen and Mullen Technologies. And the American research and development center of Chinese state-owned automaker Chang’an Automobile also received between $ 350,000 and $ 1 million.
Canoo, an LA-based electric vehicle startup that is backed by a consortium of UK and Asian investors, also received a loan in the $ 5 to $ 10 million range, according to the data. Proterra, a California-based electric bus company, also received between $ 5 and $ 10 million.
Ohio EV startup Lordstown Motors, which has just unveiled an electric van it plans to build at the former General Motors factory in Lordstown, Ohio, received a $ 1 to $ 2 million loan that it says helped keep 42 jobs. Workhorse, the commercial electric vehicle company that Lordstown essentially spun off from, also received a PPP loan in April, as did EV startup Faraday Future, founded and funded by Chinese tycoon Jia Yueting.
Arcimoto, an Oregon-based startup working on a three-wheeled electric vehicle, also received a loan in the $ 1 to $ 2 million range, which it says helped retain 110 jobs. And one of the few startups working on developing the Hyperloop system that Elon Musk helped promote in 2013, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, received a loan of between $ 150,000 and $ 350,000.
The Treasury Department and SBA originally had no intention of disclosing PPP loan recipients. But in recent months, agencies have faced mounting pressure to release the names of the companies that took the government bailout money. They finally accepted Monday and published a list of all the companies that received loans of more than $ 150,000, although the exact amount of each loan was not revealed (hence the ranges).
The loans were made available in April to companies with no more than 500 employees, meaning that new electric vehicle companies like Lucid Motors and Rivian, as well as more established companies like Tesla, were not eligible to apply. The companies that take the loans have to use them for specific things like payroll, interest on mortgages, rents or utilities, and they can have them fully forgiven if they don’t fire the employees.
