Fisker will make electric cars
Cars to be made at former GM plant
Tom Stundza -- Purchasing, 10/28/2009 3:37:02 PM
Fisker Automotive, a "green" premium sports car company, is investing $200 million to buy and retool a closed General Motors assembly plant in Wilmington, Del., to produce plug-in hybrid electric cars. The Wall Street Journal says the electric-car start-up will face off against Honda Motor, Toyota Motor, Tesla Motors and other big manufacturers in the nascent market for electric vehicles.
Fisker Automotive says in a statement that it hopes to support 2,000 factory jobs and more than 3,000 vendor and supplier jobs by 2014 at the site, with a production target of 75,000 to 100,000 vehicles per year. The Irvine, Calif.-based company will spend about $18 million to buy the plant from Motors Liquidation Co. (the "old" General Motors) and then spend an additional $175 million to retool the plant to begin production in 2012.
"This is a major step toward establishing America as a leader of advanced vehicle technology," says CEO Henrik Fisker in a statement. He says the firm will try to build a car for the under-$40,000 market-using its entrepreneurial skills to bear on a mass-market vehicle.
Fisker says plug-in hybrid cars will help lower the country's dependence on foreign energy by eliminating the need for 42 million barrels of oil by 2016. They also will offset 8 million tons of carbon-dioxide emissions.
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Good luck. The company will need it to survive in the price market they are aiming for.
TN Flash - 10/28/2009 11:01:20 PM EDT
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