91ÊÓÆµ

Where in the world is ReVolt?

By: Daily Blog//April 30, 2010//

Where in the world is ReVolt?

Daily Blog//April 30, 2010//

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Updated: ReVolt spokesman Tom Resau contacted me Friday evening to say that though ReVolt originally registered as a business at a residential address (the home of one of their senior managers), it does operate an office at One World Trade Center, 121 Southwest Salmon Street, 11th Floor, in Portland. The company has postponed changing the address on their business registration until it has found a suitable facility for its US headquarters and research and development facility.

Resau also forwarded this statement from ReVolt chief executive officer James P. McDougall:

“All of the ARPA-E [U.S. Dept. of Energy R&D agency] stimulus R&D funds we will receive will be spent in the US – plus several million of our company’s own money.”

“ReVolt’s CEO, CTO and COO are all Americans.  We spent over 6 months researching the best location in the US to reestablish our world HQ and selected Portland for its progressive stance on the environment and strong commitment for developing a clean-tech sector benefiting the same.”

“We expect to have our US team in place in Portland by October of 2010.”

“The ARPA-E R&D Award is a grant for development of next-generation energy storage technology for , not production of existing technology, such as ReVolt or others’ existing battery designs.”

Updated: A commenter has located an address for ReVolt at , in Portland. But the Google Street view of the site shows a residential neighborhood. I’d imagine ReVolt would only have one or two employees working in the U.S. at this point and it’s not unheard of to work out of a home. But a call to the number listed for ReVolt at that address showed the line is no longer in service.


Yesterday I wrote about ReVolt Technology, a battery company with aspirations for the electric vehicle industry. ReVolt received $5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to expand its facilities in Oregon. But a few people (this reporter included) are having trouble tracking down the company’s Portland office.

In a statement sent to the 91ÊÓÆµ by ReVolt spokesman Tom Resau, ReVolt CEO James P. McDougall said the company has opened an “initial Portland office” but will now begin considering sites for larger future facilities.

A Portland address isn’t listed on the company’s website. A yielded no fruit. And a search of both the state’s and the city of Portland’s business license directory also came up with zilch.

Radio personality Lars Larson brought this up on his show yesterday and also emailed me today saying the company’s lack of address raised a red flag in his mind.

“At this point it appears they haven’t even produced the hearing aid batteries that are supposed to come out this year,” Larson wrote, “yet they’re getting millions as ‘an Oregon based company.'”

I am supposed to get a call from the company sometime next week. State officials have been buzzing since yesterday about this $5 million investment in Oregon. But is ReVolt really an Oregon company yet? And if they indeed don’t have any roots here yet, what’s to stop them from going elsewhere?



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