Fisker Won't Make Plug-In Deadline

Fisker Karma Plug-In Hybrid Electric









Despite winning $529 million in government loans, Fisker Automotive Inc. won't meet a timetable announced last fall to deliver its first electric vehicles.

The Energy Department said in announcing its low-cost government loans in September that the Irvine, Calif., electric car start-up company said it would have its $88,000 Fisker Karma plug-in sports car in showrooms by this summer.

That won't happen.

Fisker spokesman Russell Datz said the "first few customers" will get Karma vehicles by the end of the year, with full production to start in the first three months of 2011.

Financing from the private equity markets, not technical issues, is to blame for the delay, Datz said.

Last month, Fisker said it had raised $35 million from private equity to complete a new round of funding to build the Karma, which is being assembled in Finland.

With part of the federal loan money, Fisker also plans to build 75,000 to 100,000 vehicles at its Wilmington, Del., plant starting in 2012.

The $48,000 family sedan, called Project Nina, will retail for around $40,000 after tax incentives.

Source: Detroit Free Press