Posted on 12/30/2011 4:36:24 PM PST by Libloather
Electric car company that received a $529M federal loan recalls vehicles
By Andrew Restuccia - 12/30/11 10:31 AM ET
An electric vehicle manufacturer that received a $529 million loan from the Energy Department is recalling 239 vehicles.
The Transportation Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Thursday that the company, Fisker Automotive, will recall its Karma vehicles made between July 1, 2011, and Nov. 3, 2011, because of a faulty electric battery component that could cause a fire.
“Within the high-voltage battery, certain hose clamps may have been positioned incorrectly during assembly. If positioned incorrectly, the batter compartment cover could interfere with the hose clamps, potentially causing a coolant leak from the cooling hose,” NHTSA said in its recall notice Thursday.
“If coolant enters the battery compartment, an electrical short could occur possibly resulting in a fire.”
The Energy Department issued a $529 million loan to Fisker in April 2010 for the development of its plug-in electric vehicles.
The administration has come under fire for issuing the loan after ABC News reported in October that Fisker is making its vehicles in Finland because it could not find a contractor in America to manufacture them.
But the Energy Department has countered that the loan was intended to help Fisker develop the vehicles, which the company did in the United States.
The Energy Department said in October that the loan was used to develop manufacturing processes for the Karma, at the company’s U.S. facilities.
The department also said the larger portion of the loan — $359 million — was supporting production of Fisker’s Nina vehicles, and that Fisker used this funding to bring a shuttered General Motors plant in Delaware back to life. That plant employs 2,500 people, according to the Energy Department.
The news comes after Republicans have pummeled the Obama administration for issuing a $535 million loan guarantee in 2009 to the now-bankrupt California solar panel manufacturer Solyndra.
House Republicans have said they intend to broaden the scope of their ongoing Solyndra investigation to include other companies that have received backing from the administration, including Fisker.
I’d laugh if it wasn’t our money that was being shoveled out the door on this insanity.
Is this the company Algore is involved with?
Help be Baby Jesus, I’m on fire!!!!
The one commercial that really is funny about this guy fueling his car and looks across the street to this other guy unplugging his car from some street charger. Like that’s going to happen. Nice pristine city street, no littler, eat of the sidewalk kind of place. Unplugs his Leaf (I think) and drives off. No other cars waiting in line to hook up (for who knows how long to re-charge) and no meter. Nothing visual where you’d drop a twenty in some money reader to charge.
Don’t laugh, I hear these cars are really on fire.
This is more than a hose clamp problem, though that is lousy design of itself. A battery ought not to catch fire just because it got doused with antifreeze or anything else likely to be found under the hood of a car.
I got to admit....it’s a good looking car.
I'm wondering what happens to the driver when one of these globe savers flips over.
Terry McAuliffe (head of the Democratic party under Clinton) is a CEO of one of these car companies sucking money from the Treasury. I went to its website a while ago and it showed Cadillac size cars getting 80 miles to a gallon. Old Terry is probably just rolling in Department of Energy money.
How many are being recalled, ten, twenty?
How many are being recalled, ten, twenty?
Bad Karma! That really sucks.
I can see parking meters on city streets becoming charging stations. Just insert a $20 bill and go shopping for 4 hours. If you overrun the $20, the meter shuts off and the meter maid puts a boot on your vehicle. Then the city council will make the meter/chraging station parking spots off limits to real vehicles. Maybe I can get $500 Mil from Obama to develop the parking meters... Oops, now the secret is out.
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