Mark Weiner reports for the Post-Standard - “A Long Island company seeking to open the Northeast’s first all-electric car plant in Central New York has passed a key milestone in its effort to gain federal financial aid.

Bannon Automotive, of Freeport, says the U.S. Department of Energy has accepted as “substantially complete” its application for a loan to help it open a plant with exclusive rights to assemble and market Reva electric cars in North America.

Reva Electric Car Co., of Bangalore, India, the world’s largest manufacturer of all-electric plug-in vehicles, agreed to the deal in October. Bannon has since selected a plant site at the former Ball Corp. plastic bottle factory in Radisson Corporate Park in Lysander. Bannon wants to begin production by the last quarter of the year. But its project has been delayed as the company seeks a combination of local, state and federal financial incentives.

New York state has already agreed to provide $6.76 million in incentives that include a grant, and wage and tax credits. Now the deal hinges on $52 million in loans and loan guarantees the company seeks from the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development agency, according to sources familiar with the application.”

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