Fisker Quits

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According to the Wall Street Journal, Henrik Fisker has announced his resignation from Fisker Automotive. He was the founder.

DETROIT—The founder and executive chairman of electric-car startup Fisker Automotive Inc. said he resigned Wednesday because of "disagreements" over business strategy with the ailing company's management.

Henrik Fisker said in an email sent to a small number of journalists that has "left the company." Reached by phone, Mr. Fisker confirmed that he sent the email and that he had resigned.

Fisker Automotive is the maker of the Karma, a battery-powered luxury sports that sells for about $100,000.

Like Solyndra, Fisker was among the beneficiaries of Obama's green energy initiatives, winning approval for a $529 million U.S. Department of Energy loan to build battery powered cars. Not only would Fisker help beat back global warming with its electric cars (as if global warming needs to be beaten back), it would also put 2,000 Americans to work building them.

April 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Washington, DC - The Department of Energy announced today the closing of a $528.7 million loan with Fisker Automotive for the development and production of two lines of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). The loan will support the Karma, a full-size, four-door sports sedan, and a line of family oriented models being developed under the company's Project NINA program.

"The story of Fisker is a story of ingenuity of an American company, a commitment to innovation by the U.S. government and the perseverance of the American auto industry," said Vice President Joe Biden. "The Boxwood Plant is opening again, employing workers in Delaware, and is serving as a roadmap for all we can accomplish if everyone works together. Thanks to real dedication by this Administration, loans from the Department of Energy, the creativity of U.S. companies and the tenacity of great state partners like Delaware - we're on our way to helping America's auto industry reclaim its top position in the global market."

Fisker, a startup based in southern California, expects to manufacture the Karma and Project NINA lines at a recently shuttered General Motors factory in Wilmington, Delaware. Fisker anticipates that it will employ 2,000 American assembly workers. Industry experts expect that domestic parts suppliers and service providers also will increase employment substantially.

Unfortunately, a year and a half later it was beginning to look like the Obama administration had put our money on another green energy loser. Instead of 2,000 new jobs in Delaware, Fisker began production in Finland.

Oct. 20, 2011

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.

Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department's $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the company's manufacturing jobs are still limited to the assembly of the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car in Finland.

So millions went to Fisker, jobs went to Finland, and Fisker's American workers got... laid off.

Published February 07, 2012
Associated Press

DOVER, Del. (AP) — Fisker Automotive, an electric car maker that received a half-billion-dollar loan from the federal government, said Monday that it has laid off workers in Delaware and California.

The layoffs include 26 workers at a former General Motors plant in Wilmington that Fisker is retooling to manufacture its Nina plug-in hybrid sedan. Another 40 contractors and employees who were working in design and development of Fisker's Karma luxury car in Anaheim, Calif., also have been cut.

The layoffs come as Fisker is seeking to renegotiate its loan agreement with the Department of Energy.

Fisker has received $193 million of the $529 million DOE loan, mostly for work on the Karma, which sells for about $100,000.

The Wall Street Journal article that reported Henrik Fisker's resignation, also mentioned that Fisker the company is up for sale.

In recent weeks, Fisker management has been looking into selling the company, weighing bids including a $350 million offer from China's Dongfeng Motor Corp.

$350 million. That puts a value on Fisker that's less than it originally planned to borrow. Wouldn't it be nice if voters could keep stories like this one in mind as we listen to Obama accuse, abuse, and browbeat because he wants to boost spending at the rate of 5% per year over the next ten years instead of the 3.4% that Republicans propose. I suspect most voters have never even heard of Fisker so I won't count on anybody's memory.

Instead, we can expect the administration to find ways of causing more people more pain if Obama doesn't get his way on more spending and more taxes. We can also count on the Obama-infatuated media to make certain that Republicans get the blame for it.