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With the approval of the Obama administration, an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work.
Quote:
The loan to Fisker is part of a $1 billion bet the Energy Department has made in two politically connected California-based electric carmakers producing sporty -- and pricey -- cutting-edge autos. Fisker Automotive, backed by a powerhouse venture capital firm whose partners include former Vice President Al Gore, predicts it will eventually be churning out tens of thousands of electric sports sedans at the shuttered GM factory it bought in Delaware. And Tesla Motors, whose prime backers include PayPal mogul Elon Musk and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, says it will do the same in a massive facility tooling up in Silicon Valley.
Not to mention there's almost a whole shuttered auto plant (NUMI) in CA as I'm sure there are others. I wonder how happy the UAW is about being sold out by their masters.
The business plan of Fisker Automotive is a fairy tale.This whole thing will implode like Solyndra and we, the American tax payers, will be left holding the bag for another half-billion dollars.
Not to mention there's almost a whole shuttered auto plant (NUMI) in CA as I'm sure there are others.
The Tesla plant mentioned above IS the old NUMMI plant in Freemont CA. Their plan is a bit shaky too, but they have a better shot of making it work, especially since they've been able to impress Toyota enough with their technology to gain a $100-million contract to supply drivetrains for an electric version of the RAV-4.
The Tesla plant mentioned above IS the old NUMMI plant in Freemont CA. Their plan is a bit shaky too, but they have a better shot of making it work, especially since they've been able to impress Toyota enough with their technology to gain a $100-million contract to supply drivetrains for an electric version of the RAV-4.
That's interesting, and something I didn't know. Given the price, I figured Tesla was just building toys for the rich and famous, I didn't know they had the technology priced where it could go into a more mainstream vehicle.
About the Fisker Loan:
With the help of a $529 million loan, Fisker is producing high performance vehicles with an advanced hybrid electric powertrain that could significantly improve performance and fuel economy.
Fisker’s loan has two parts. In the first part, Fisker used $169 million to support the engineers who developed the tools, equipment and manufacturing processes for Fisker’s first vehicle, the Fisker Karma. That work was done Fisker’s U.S. facilities, including its headquarters in Irvine, California which has 700 employees and plans to continue hiring. While the vehicles themselves are being assembled in Fisker’s existing overseas facility, the Department’s funding was only used for the U.S. operations. The money could not be, and was not, spent on overseas operations. The Karma also relies on an extensive network of hundreds of suppliers in more than a dozen U.S. states. The larger portion of the loan -- $359 million – is supporting the production of Fisker’s Nina vehicles. Fisker is using this funding to bring a shuttered General Motors plant in Delaware back to life and employing more than 2,500 workers. Fisker was attracted to this site in part by the opportunity to rehire some of the trained, dedicated workers who lost their jobs when that plant closed.
Fisker’s production schedule was delayed by regulatory issues that were outside of its control, but the company has successfully raised more than $650 million in private sector investment to support its ongoing operations since closing its DOE loan.
Was this the company that was producing some electric cars for Ford back in the early 2000's? I seem to remember Ford was importing cars for the California market from a Scandanavian country.
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