Hybrid vehicle maker Bright Automotive has announced plans to close, blasting the Department of Energy for failing to finalize a loan that the firm says would have kept it afloat. In a letter dated Tuesday to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Bright CEO Reuben Munger and COO Mike Donoughe said they were withdrawing their application for a $314 million loan and winding down their operations. The executives claimed they had been strung along for the past few years as the government insisted on increasingly stringent loan requirements. “The actions — or better said ‘lack of action’ — by your team means hundreds of great manufacturing and technical jobs … and thousands of indirect jobs in Indiana and Michigan will not see the light of day,” the letter said. The Indiana-based company was founded in 2008 and had developed a prototype for a plug-in hybrid van, but had not yet begun manufacturing. Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera said the two sides could not come to an agreement “on terms that would protect the taxpayers.”
