In 2016, the company began building autonomous pods.
Local Motors was a force to be reckoned with ten years ago when it introduced the Rally Fighter. Although the company has had a shift in focus, the fun seems to be over. This month, the company will close due to a lack in funding. Local Motors has not made an official announcement. However, former employees took to LinkedIn to share the news via personal posts.
Chris Stoner, Local Motors’ former vice-president of sales and customer satisfaction, shared the news on the professional social network site that the company would “endow” as of January 14. Local Motors was established in 2007. Its first model, Rally Fighter, was released in 2009, after 18 months of development. The production of the Rally Fighter was ended in 2016, when the company introduced Olli, an autonomous electric pod.
Ivan Golubic was the company’s previous interim CFO. He wrote, “In light today’s announcement from Local Motors, I will only say that I am proud to have been able to be part this leadership team, and lead the finance department in such challenging, exciting times.” Jeff Hollowell, LM’s senior vice president for information technology, began his position much less formally. “As with all adventures, they must end.” Local Motors closed its doors.
Local Motors has not commented on the closure of the company. The Drive was alerted to the closing yesterday by an anonymous source. According to an anonymous source, the reason for the company’s failure was a lack in funding. Although the company was currently evaluating its Olli self-propelled pods, it is not clear what will happen to the project. Motor1.com reached out to Local Motors to confirm and clarify the situation. If we have more information, we will update this post.
It is sad to see the company go, especially as it offered a unique vehicle in Rally Fighter. This car featured a 6.2-liter V8 and was a beautiful design.