Self-described inventor (and convicted felon) Lawrence Hardge received a $680,000 contract from the District of Columbia for a small device that he claims increases the range of electric vehicles.
Local media outlet WUSA9 was the first to shine the spotlight on the shady EV deal DC's Department of Public Works recently made with Hardge to outfit 40 Chevrolet Bolt EVs with the Energy Management Module (EEM) device.
Hardge claims the device can increase any EV battery's driving range and efficiency by more than 60%. Electrical engineers from the University of Maryland say that's 'practically impossible.'
"There's not technologies that I'm aware of that can really boost that same battery pack to significantly more than 200-mile range," said Paul Albertus, an associate director of the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute.
Albertus said, "There's a variety of limitations just from basic chemical theory. There's only so much energy you can store for the materials that you put into a battery."
WUSA contacted General Motors, maker of the Bolts, and asked if they knew of the EEM device.
"We have not been involved in this project and are not aware of this specific technology," General Motors wrote in a statement.
DC awarded Hardge a $680,000 contract for the device that UMD experts say is 'bogus.'
Hardge was convicted of selling unregistered securities from his home state of Mississippi two decades ago. He served five years in prison and tried to expunge his criminal record in 2021.
According to a Jackson Advocate article in 2022, Hardge claimed that he "had been notified by the University of Michigan, which is located only 35 miles from Hardge Global Manufacturing offices in Farmington Hills, Michigan, that he is being prepped for a possible Nobel Prize nomination by the university."
"I interviewed with the University of Michigan last year," he said in the article. "I spent about eight hours with them. They wanted to nominate me for a Nobel Prize. They thought I was the perfect candidate."
WUSA spoke with a University of Michigan spokesperson who said, "We've checked with colleagues who would be most likely to be familiar with Mr. Hardge (Office of Research, College of Engineering, Communications) and no one is familiar with him."
Depending on how this plays out, this could be a future episode on CNBC's American Greed.
