The luxury carmaker Fisker Automotive continues to signal it could ditch plans to build its next generation hybrid electric vehicle in the United States, despite the nearly $200 million in Obama administration loan money it has already received.
Fisker received federal funds in part to help purchase a shuttered General Motors plant in Delaware, where it predicted it would one day employ 2,000 auto workers to assemble the clean-burning gas-electric family car, known as the Atlantic.
But company executives began hinting in February that it would reconsider that plan and look for a cheaper place to build the car after the Department of Energy froze the $529 million green-energy loan the company had received, and had been drawing on since 2010.
Fisker used the first $169 million in taxpayer funds to bring to market the Karma, a flashy $100,000 hybrid sports sedan that it assembles in Finland. After a series of delays and stumbles, the company announced it had sold its first 1,000 Karmas, bringing in $100 million in revenues so far this year. The sleek, high-end model has been well received by critics, and the company reported this week it has started to sell in Europe, and could soon be on sale in the Middle East.
One of the company's major backers is the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, according to published reports. The firm's partners include John Doerr, a billionaire tech mogul who serves on President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fisker-build-electric-cars-us/story?id=16458585#.T8mLVcWgv2n
Another Obama failure, what a surprise.
Fisker received federal funds in part to help purchase a shuttered General Motors plant in Delaware, where it predicted it would one day employ 2,000 auto workers to assemble the clean-burning gas-electric family car, known as the Atlantic.
But company executives began hinting in February that it would reconsider that plan and look for a cheaper place to build the car after the Department of Energy froze the $529 million green-energy loan the company had received, and had been drawing on since 2010.
Fisker used the first $169 million in taxpayer funds to bring to market the Karma, a flashy $100,000 hybrid sports sedan that it assembles in Finland. After a series of delays and stumbles, the company announced it had sold its first 1,000 Karmas, bringing in $100 million in revenues so far this year. The sleek, high-end model has been well received by critics, and the company reported this week it has started to sell in Europe, and could soon be on sale in the Middle East.
One of the company's major backers is the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, according to published reports. The firm's partners include John Doerr, a billionaire tech mogul who serves on President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fisker-build-electric-cars-us/story?id=16458585#.T8mLVcWgv2n
Another Obama failure, what a surprise.
