Plug-in maker Fisker to buy idled GM plant

Fisker's first car, the Karma, is set to be released next year. Its Delaware plant is set to make its next luxury car, which will also be a plug-in hybrid.

(Credit: Fisker Automotive)

Upstart carmaker Fisker Automotive on Tuesday said it will purchase a plant in Wilmington, Del., to make a plug-in hybrid sedan.

The facility, which used to be a General Motors factory, will begin manufacturing a plug-in hybrid in late 2012, which the company expects will cost almost $40,000 after federal tax credits. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Delaware Gov. Jack Markell are scheduled to speak at an announcement ceremony on Tuesday morning.

Production of Fisker's "family-oriented" car, called Project Nina, will result in 2,000 factory jobs. The company anticipates making 75,000 to 100,000 cars per year by 2014. "Wilmington is perfect for high-quality, low-volume production," CEO Henrik Fisker said in a statement.

The Wilmington assembly plant, closed in July this year, produced a handful of relatively low-volume cars from GM's shed brands, including the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky.

Fisker's first car, called the Karma, is a high-end luxury car priced at about $88,000. The Karma, which is will be manufactured in Europe, will be available in the middle of next year.

Fisker Automotive received $528.7 million from a Department of Energy loan in September, which will fund the purchase of the factory from GM. The company expects to buy the plant for $18 million and spend another $175 million to retool the factory over the next three years.

The technology used by Fisker, called an extended-range electric vehicle or series hybrid, is similar to that used by General Motors' Chevy Volt. The Karma will go 50 miles on batteries, and then a gasoline engine will run a generator for longer rides, for a total range 300 miles.

[solitare_pax]

That's nice - an electric luxury car only the rich can afford.

Could someone please make an ecomony electric car now for the impatient masses?

A Model T for the 21st Century if you will.

[ewsachse]

$40,000 for the "Project Nina" car is just a little above the average for a quality new car.

Anything less would end up as a clown car from the circus.

Granted, $80,000 for the Karma is out of the range of most people.

[Highlowsel]

Yup...would that somebody remember how Henry Ford made his mark, and emulate it....

[USDecliningDollar]

Incredible - that is huge.

[someguynamedbob]

lots of car companies are born.
i never hear of them, i never see any of there cars, and then they go bankrupt and nobody realy cares

[cosuna]

Okey Bob 250+ million americans knew GM and it went bankrupt and everybody cared.

Now new companies are replacing those old ones using creative techniques learned from the PC industry. Start extremely expensive (remember the $10,000 Apple Lisa) and use the money to increase production and lower the cost.

That way was used by LCD and LED to replace CRT (Tubes) and Lightbulbs. One started small in watches and ended in high def TVs. The other started as fancy lights for floppy disks and ended in high powered lighting system in stadiums and Wal-Marts.

[YankeePoodle]

I would have preferred Tesla or Aptera. Fisker never had convinced me that they really have original working prototype.. Karma is a aweful knock-off stolen from Tesla, and Project Nina is vaporware. No wonder they are kissing up to Biden and buying a plant in Delaware.. how sad... political connections over innovation.

[illil0]

Typo, I think: $52.8.7 million?

[dougbugl]

it's taking GM close to 6 years to do the same thing and they are continuing on the backtracking on design, price, and even performance. Granted, Fisker has more experience than GM does since they actually make an electric vehicle now while GM destroyed all of the technology they had to make their electric car( EV1 ) just a couple of years before they started talking up the Volt. That's crush/destroy in 2003 and the marketing of the Volt in 2005.

Maybe the Obama Administration should look at this and rethink GM. Is it still worth what they dumped into them or would the country be better off with smaller companies buying up the pieces?

Go Fisker!

[sanenazok]

Oh yes the Obama administration is going to let GM get sold off. Right, and who would buy the union and pension obligations?

[cosuna]

Nobody @sanenazok, they're just going to buy the carcasses. Just as what happened with the "New Chrysler" which didn't bought the rights for 8 plants in the U.S.

Simple. Unions suck good in the "new normal". Outsourcing reings and electric cars will outpace gasoline/petrol by 2015.

[Caffeinated85]

This is great news for our area! A lot of jobs in the area were tied to this plant, and the Chrysler plant a few miles away. I am really glad someone is making use of the space. Hopefully Project Nina takes off, and the plant stays open for a long time.

[r1c44ak0]

Why are they still hooking the automobile to gasoline, wouldn't it be better to design into the natural gas supply that breaks the foreign oil grip on our economic market. Eventually we will have to convert to something more eco-friendly for the long term. In both (using natural gas and hybrid power) ways we are reducing the carbon footprint for the transportation industry. This seems to make better sense to me. There are better ways that staying hooked into petroleum products.