General Electric Begins Financing Electric Cars

Judging solely from the name, you'd expect General Electric (NYSE: GE  ) to have a fondness for electric businesses -- and it does.

On Thursday, GE announced that in yet another move toward trying to midwife an American electric car industry, it will begin the financing of commercial purchases of low-speed electric vehicles from Polaris Industries (NYSE: PII  ) subsidiary Global Electric Motorcars (GEM).

GE already supports the nascent electric car industry in several ways, for example, by promising to buy 25,000 electric cars over five years, and by developing the "WattStation" tower for charging electric cars.

The cars GE says it will be financing today -- smaller than better-known Chevy Volt or Nissan Leaf motorcars -- more resemble golfcarts in size, but can travel at up to 25 mph, and are street-legal for use on many roads. According to a press release, GEM has sold 46,000 of the vehicles to date.

GE will conduct the financing of purchases of GEM vehicles through its GE Capital Finance subsidiary.

 

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