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Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished.....
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Posted on 09/25/2009 11:18:25 AM PDT by Praxeologue
The Fisker Hybrid vehicle Tyler Brownbridge/Windsor Star
Fisker Automotive Inc., a U.S. startup planning to sell luxury plug-in hybrid cars, secured a federal loan for as much as US$528.7-million to fund production of its low-emission models.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the Irvine, Calif.-based company will get the conditional financing for development of two lines of plug-in hybrids. The loan is the fourth such announcement under a program intended to spur a market for vehicles that reduce fuel use and greenhouse gases.
"Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles could revolutionize personal transportation and cut our dependence on foreign oil, not to mention give us cleaner air and less carbon pollution," Chu said in a statement. The Fisker project may create as many as 5,000 jobs, the Energy Department said.
The U.S. in June awarded about US$8-billion in low-cost federal loans, part of the so-called Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program, to Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and electric carmaker Tesla Motors Inc. to help fund production of fuel-efficient autos at U.S. factories. Fisker has yet to deliver its US$80,000 Karma model, which is designed to travel 50 miles (80 kilometers) on lithium-ion battery power before its gasoline engine engages.
The government loans to Fisker, exceeding the US$465-million awarded to Tesla, are the largest to a startup carmaker that has yet to begin high-volume electric-vehicle production.
U.S. Factory
Fisker initially will use a US$169.3-million loan from the manufacturing program for engineering work in Michigan and California to get the Karma ready for delivery by next year. In the second stage, a US$359.4-million loan will be used for production of the Nina model, intended to sell for as little as US$39,900 after a federal tax credit, Fisker said on Tuesday.
Fisker's Karma model is to be assembled under contract in Finland, with about 65% of the car's parts to be produced in the U.S., said Russell Datz, a company spokesman said. Those include a motor supplied by General Motors Co. and batteries from Ener1 Inc.'s EnerDel factory in Indiana, he said.
"The funds are for engineering and development of key components in the U.S.," Henrik Fisker, the company's chief executive officer, said in an interview. "We're not using any of the money from DOE for anything we're doing in Finland."
The company plans to buy and retool an existing U.S. factory site to produce the Nina and may announce details of the location by the end of this year, he said.
Fisker has orders for 1,500 Karmas, which will sell for US$87,900 before a federal tax credit, and aims to deliver about 15,000 of the cars annually by 2011, Henrik Fisker said. He wouldn't say how much his company has raised from private sources.
Investors in closely held Fisker, founded by car designer Fisker, include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a Menlo Park, California-based venture capital fund that employs former Vice President Al Gore, and Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc.
Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished.....
If you want ON or OFF the DIESEL ”KnOcK” LIST just FReepmail me.....
This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days.....
His Karma will soon run over Gore’s Dogma..............
Oh, what the hell was I thinking!!
Why is the gov’t in the loan business?
If their business model is that good, why can’t they obtain private financing?
Except that there won’t be enough electricity to charge their batteries.
They’ll have to run on gas.
Exactly.
The Feds are in the loans to prominent Democrats business.
That’s actually not the case - power plants are more efficient than your average internal combustion engine in typical car operation. In peak operation, they’re pretty close, but cars aren’t usually running at peak efficiency because they’re not being used at their most efficient horsepower.
Anyway, we need to both drill *and* innovate. I don’t get why doing both is such a hard thing to understand for most Americans. Shoot the caribou, sink the wells, AND develop new drivetrains. It’s not an either-or.
Why are we subsidising a car company for cars no one can afford anyway?
Cars that our grid can’t support?
Cars that we have to help buy, too!
Double subsidy...help pay to make it, then help a rich person buy it...
“If their business model is that good, why can’t they obtain private financing?”
It isn’t. The F’ing cars go for 100 grand.
It is good to have connections.
Psst! Chu on this: CARBON ISN'T A POLLUTANT!
And CHU on this to- YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO MY MONEY!!! I hope NOBODY buys any crap you make. That's the only way to ensure that there will be no more future raiding of the public purse, which shouldn't have happened in the first place.
I’d love to know where the Constitution authorizes the Federal government to dole out loans to manufacturers of politically-correct products.
Nice looking car, though. But if it can’t make it as a capitalist venture, it should not exist.
Careful, don’t step in the dogma ****. This venture will be at least as big a success as the TV network and Air America.
But oh the payoffs and the kickbacks!
Calipornia already has brownouts. I can hardly wait till are the enviro-kooks buy electric cars and try plug them in.
Of course so many of these nuts are so one-dimensional in their thinking that they think they will plug in for "free" on campus, or the parking lot at work and nobody will notice they are stealing electricity, or notice the increase on the electric bill.
Boy are they ever going to be in for a suprise when they see just how much they are going to pay for green, plus cap and trade electricity...
Actually, power companies love EVs because they help stabilize the grid. They’re steadily, predictable loads that readily adapt to smart charging.
I don’t think electricity prices will rise as much as many hear fear under Cap and Trade (at least long-term). Namely, because I don’t think the Rats have the votes to kill nuclear. So while their intent may be to shove wind and solar down our throats, we’ll probably get mostly uranium (which is good in my book).
Boondoggles, we never knew you so well. This boondoggle is dripping with irony. Chu has the nerve to promote huge subsidies for production and purchase of a luxury good. Nationalization of the economy will lead us into a Soviet style situation with laughable central plans and consumer shortages.
The prices will not rise so much because the rats have carefully delayed the impact. When the impact occurs, we will see dramatic effects unless the rats back down. With outrageously unobtainable goals, I am not sure that the rats can or will back down. However, the rats now will be long gone when the impact occurs.
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