Electric-car parts firm Amerigon drives for $12 million stock debut.

Amerigon Inc., a developer of electric-car parts, is counting on its first stock offering to help jump-start both the company and production of alternative transportation in Los Angeles County.

The Burbank-based company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 27 to go public with a $12 million stock offering of 2 million shares at $6 per share. After the offering, Amerigon shares will be listed on Nasdaq.

The stock offering is designed to fuel operations at Amerigon, a tiny company operating at a loss since it was formed in April 1991 by Lon Bell, also a co-founder of Calstart, a public-private partnership created to foster alternative transportation in California.

Calstart, a consortium of 43 utilities and research, aerospace and technology companies, expects to assist in creating 55,000 electric-car related jobs in California by the year 2000.

The consortium is betting on a payoff from new rules in California requiring automakers to sell 40,000 emission-free cars each year beginning in 1998 and 200,000 such vehicles each year beginning in 2003.

As a member of Calstart, Amerigon spearheaded development of Calstart's first electric car. Designed to display benefits of using California aerospace and defense technology in the automotive area, the $5 million showcase car has been displayed in several automotive shows.

Amerigon is a closely held company which has benefited from $1.9 million in grants and development contracts through Calstart for its electric-car parts, according to the prospectus.

After the stock offering, Bell will own approximately 59 percent of outstanding Amerigon stock, a drop from his current 88 percent stake. However, he will retain control over the company and can elect all members of its board of directors.

Bell, who has a master's degree from the California Institute of Technology in rocket propulsion and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Caltech, formed a company called Technar in 1967. He sold his majority stake in Technar to TRW in 1986.

"Our aerospace community here spent the last 20 years pushing the envelope of technology and can be an important source in developing new transit sources," said Bell. He said the company wants to specialize not in developing electric cars, but car components, technology he hopes to market worldwide.

The company plans to offer securities through underwriter D. H. Blair & Co., a New York-based firm under investigation by the SEC since 1989, according to the stock prospectus.

Because of the SEC-imposed "quiet period" before and after any stock offering, Amerigon officials, including Bell, said they could not comment on the offering or why they had selected D.H. Blair & Co.

"We agreed not to give any interviews. I feel that no one in the company can comment," said Joshua Newman, Amerigon vice president of corporate development. A spokesman with D.H. Blair & Co. said he did not wish to comment.

Amerigon is still in the development stages, a tiny enterprise with only 20 full-time employees, but with 30 people in training programs at the company.

Amerigon has continually operated at a loss and by December 1992 it had an accumulated deficit of $2 million and a working capital deficit of $1.58 million.

Proceeds from the stock offering, along with grants and existing contracts, will fund development of the company for the next 12 to 18 months.

However, in the prospectus, the company cautions after that period it will need additional financing and there is no certainty the money will be available.

Amerigon hopes to profit from new rules adopted by California, New York, Maine and Massachusetts to comply with Federal Clean Air Act regulations. These rules require major automobile manufacturers to sell certain quantities of "zero emission vehicles" such as electric cars.

However, current battery technology can only propel a sub-compact electric car for 60 to 120 miles. The Amerigon stock prospectus cautions that technology may not be developed to power the cars further.

In the prospectus, the company touts its development of four high-tech, electric-car related products, all in various stages of development. Products include: an audio navigation system, a thermoelectric system for heating and cooling car seats, an energy management system and an electric vehicle crash system.

The company's navigation system, when perfected, will enable a driver to spell aloud the street name and address of a desired destination, the company material states. Then, the computer navigator provides step-by-step verbal directions on how the reach the destination.

The company's seat system will use thermoelectric modules to turn car seats hot or cold. Currently, several car models offer only heated seats, but seat coolant systems could help cool down cars left in the sun, the company said.

In addition, the company's proposed energy management system is designed to improve performance of electric cars, and the electric vehicle crash safety system is designed to increase safety in the event such a car is wrecked.