As Fisker buys GM plant, Big Auto sees its plug-in hybrid future
Filed under: Energy, Technology, Green, General Motors
When a General Motors plant in Wilmington, Del. shut down this July, it left 550 people out of work. But the city isn't mourning the loss of Big Auto so much anymore because Very Little Electric Auto is taking its place. Fisker, maker of small plug-in hybrid cars, announced Tuesday it was buying the recently-shuttered GM plant in Wilmington, and in 2012 would have 2,000 people working there. By 2014, the plant could be making 100,000 cars a year and employ 2,500 workers.Far from its roots building Pontiac, Saturn and Opel sports cars for GM, the factory will produce a car code-named "Project NINA," a family-oriented plug-in electric vehicle. The car will be targeted to a very different consumer for Fisker, which has yet to bring a product to market. Its first concept, a gorgeous-but-spendy plug-in sports car called the Karma, received raves for its beauty and shock for its impracticality when the company secured a $528 million Department of Energy loan in September. The company is taking pre-orders for the car, which should be delivered in 2010.
And on Fisker's website, the focus is decidedly high-end: the company calls itself "a green American premium sports car company with a mission to create a range of beautiful environmentally friendly cars that make environmental sense without compromise." Project Nina, then, may be an afterthought. The new family sedan will be sold at a much more accessible price point: around $40,000 after a $7,500 tax rebate. Company officials say that "Nina" is a reference to Christopher Columbus' ship, "symbolic of the automobile industry's transition from old world to new."
This is a transition indeed, if by "old world" one is referring to the old guard of Detroit. Though the $528 million DOE loan raised hackles of consumer and business groups when it was initially granted -- the Karma seemed out of reach for most consumers, and is being completed in Finland -- it paled in comparison to the conditional loan commitments handed out to Ford ($5.9 billion) and Nissan ($1.6 billion). Tesla Motors, whose first car was targeted to an even more extravagant audience than Fisker, also received a commitment of $465 million. The loan will be used for a car that sounds remarkably similar to Fisker's Project Nina, "an all-electric family sedan that carries seven people and travels up to 300 miles per charge," at $49,500 after the tax rebate.
It's hard to find a more worthy use for DOE money than to buy a just-mothballed GM plant. The plant cost $18 million and will result in an investment of at least $175 million in the local economy by way of plant upgrades; ultimately, 3,000 local folks will be employed to produce a green car worthy of the American family. And it's a huge win for blue-collar Wilmington, which Fisker says it picked because of its "access to shipping ports, rail lines and available skilled workforce," as well as the factory's "size, production capacity, world-class paint facilities."
The only open question now is whether the American family will be able to afford more than 100,000 of the $50,000 electric family sedans a year. Tesla hasn't said how many cars a year its facility will produce, though it plans to employ about 1,000 workers somewhere in California. They can build it, but will they come?
Why is Oprah going to cable? Hint: It's nothing to get teary about
Kisses from Hershey: Candymaker may court Cadbury with $17 billion bid
D-Day for Harry Reid: Can he wrangle 60 votes for Senate health reform bill?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
10-28-2009 @ 2:28PM
counterrevolution said...
will there be a follow-up story to this when the public ends up not buying these high price death traps and it's revealed how many billions of taxpayer dollars were wasted? since it results from the sewer known as the donkey party dolt "mind" i know the marxist media will not bother to inform.
Reply
10-28-2009 @ 4:21PM
mickey said...
$50,000??????? Yeah, I'll take three. Here, let me write you a check. You have to be F-ing kidding me.
10-28-2009 @ 7:56PM
Bob - Akron said...
Great idea! There definately is a market - look at all the BMW' s, Cadillacs, Lexus and Jaguar's on the road. Also, count the higher end Audi's, Toyota Avalons, Crossover SUV's, high-end Buicks and Infinity too. There appears to be to many negative people here. America was built,on optimism, not doom and gloom.
10-29-2009 @ 8:56AM
Scarpelli said...
Some of you anti-technology Neanderthals remind me of the detractors of the "horseless carriages" in the early 1900s. Face it, electric cars, hybrids, and plug-in hybrids are the next phase of automobiles. The first examples will be, of course, more expensive and less sophisticated, but the technology will evolve. I look forward to putting one of these efficient marvels in my garage, right next to my 505-hp Z06. And how some of you equate electric cars with Marxism is really funny and sad.
10-28-2009 @ 2:30PM
glenn c said...
$50,000.00 ? you have to be kidding me right? I think unless you make well over $100,00.00 per year income, besides having a job that most likely would give you a minimum of five years of steady employment, there is no way possible for me to give up my 28 mpg vehicle. A new car has always carried the logical economics. 1.) depreciation (high) 2.) insurance for theft (high) 3. repair bills? (who knows) 4.) cost of electricity to charge the car
Maybe using the old Henry Ford concept could work? all the same color, minimal creature comforts, and slash the prices, or give the new owners a substancial IRS yearly write off
Reply
10-28-2009 @ 9:54PM
ptnitz1369 said...
That's right on. Give me a car that I can afford in this economy and I'll buy it! But $50,000 is out of the question.
10-28-2009 @ 2:32PM
kdnorcutt said...
This is good news. A new company wanting to build something in this country. What an original idea. I hate to say it but this is more of what we need. companies creating jobs.If this keeps up there may be hope for our economy that our government screwed up and have no idea how to fix.
Reply
10-28-2009 @ 3:23PM
John said...
528 million start up funds from taxpayers. If the product is so great why aren't private investors breaking down the door to invest. $.7.500.00 tax credit, 528 million start up sounds like a boondoggle to me.
10-28-2009 @ 5:13PM
Tonyfop said...
In order to help the economy, it has to be a product with a market. This product has no market. I own a 2006 Chevy Cobalt. I just drove it from Norfolk VA to NYC and back over the weekend. It cost me $12,000 for the car, and I got 36 MPG for the trip. $50,000 car, and who knows the electricity cost? No thanks. When it makes economic sense for me to buy an electric car, or a hybrid, or whatever, than give me a call.
10-28-2009 @ 2:34PM
Ferenz Kozo said...
What the hell has this comment got to do with FISKER ??
Reply
10-28-2009 @ 2:36PM
B.P. Dumas said...
this 500 million something dollar loan to this new electric start up, well theres another 500 million down the damm drain for nothing, oh was it that the ex GM plant was in delaware, home of the veep biden there that was the real motivation . GM was only employing 1000 at the plant and they claim (Fisker) they'll be eventually employing double and triple that. That BS of the first degree. Oh by the way all you chuckie cheeseball super greenies out there, the lithium for the batteries is mined in latin america and china, you know those handy dandy lithium-ion cordless drills which everyone knows and loves, the batteries are all made in either Mexico and or China where the battery manufacturing infrastructure which made the previous Nickel-Cadmium and Nickel Metal Hydride batteries were also produced. Take a guess where Fisker will vend thier batteries from, you got it there dog, China. that's why need a port. They;re not gonna export the car like GM did when they made cars there. they're gonna import lots of the parts. and the parts are gonna arrive on container ships of course,at the port of wilmington. right. you know we all don't have "I'm stupid" tattooed on our foreheads. Of course the super greenies don't wanna talk about the proverbial havoc these so called electric and plug in hybrids will wreak on the current electric power grid, and this will come to pass.
Of course what the super greenies also don't talk about is this, this is a car, right, OK, so you still need the traditional sorts of parts manufacturing vendors that Gm,Ford, Mopar, Toyota, Nissan and everyone else uses, right. Guess what, in this current auto recession, lots of those vendors have either temporarily or permanently closed plants here, lots of existing plants have laid off staff, theres been lots of retirements of the most skilled workers, as the auto industry slows down so do all thier vendors including very specialized companies such as those that make big presses, jigs, dies, machine tool, stamping machines and so forth. So its not quite so easy.
Reply
10-28-2009 @ 2:40PM
moleman said...
Another Obama F%%up. Who is going to pay anywhere that much for a bucket. I can feed my 12mpg pickup for it's entire life on the difference in purchased price, not counting the recharge and other costs related to electric vehicles. Playd to the rich celebrity types who try to cram this crap down our throats. Let Pelosi and Ried drive them. Maybe Pelosi's doc can inject that botox to put a smile on her puss.
Reply
10-28-2009 @ 2:43PM
Rock Fossil said...
Watch this and weep! GM gave in to big oil and scrapped the best car ever built, I know.... I had one and they forced me to turn it in!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsJAlrYjGz8
Reply
10-28-2009 @ 2:45PM
kevin said...
I don't know any families who could afford a 50 grand car.
Reply
10-28-2009 @ 3:20PM
Tech said...
Nice looking cars but too expensive! BYD in China builds a very nice family car that's totally electric for less than half and hybrids for even less. Warren Buffet is a big investor so why can't Americans build decent hybrids at a reasonable cost? Part of the reason is GM had the technology after buying the company that invented the Nickel Hydride battery then turned around and sold it to Chervon/Texaco who in turn has refused to let anyone produce them. Toyota does use this technology in it's Prius hybrids and produces the batteries even though Chevron/Texaco sued. The Prius is already on the road, half the price and accepted. Toyota alsolocked up mining supllies of Lanthium etc. required to produce these batteries which has something to do with why GM etc. are nowforced to use Litium Ion batteries an unproven more difficult technology for car use. Lithium Ion batteries have a big problem, any slight defect in the manufacture can result in huge FIRES. A short in a cell busts into flames and ignites neighboring cells in a rapid chain reaction and car batteries require many more cells-nickel hydride batteries do not suffer from this. Well we had it but Rick Wagoner at GM killed the whole thing and GM selling out to big oil and fleecing the company concentrating on GMAC becomming another bank. BYD is the largest battery maker and uses a Lithium FE battery and we have to play catch up bigtime. It will be years and then they will outsource it to Chindia or Korea probably. Sold out the country and GM care of the executives and big oil. Sickening as it could have saved Detroit years ago.
Reply
10-28-2009 @ 3:34PM
Dean said...
What I want to know is what are they going to do with all these batterys when they go bad?
10-28-2009 @ 7:13PM
John said...
Delaware Governor Jack Markell stated today that this is a beautifully designed automobile, it will get 100 miles to the gallon. A plug in electric car that gets 100 miles to the gallon isn't that terrific. Manufacturing will begin in 2012. I was confused by the lack of a photo of this beautiful car, Govenorr Markell was privy to visit. Imagine row after row of row houses with extension cords running to the street plugged into a Fisker. Parking spaces with adapters on the parking meters, parking lots with rent a plug spaces.
10-28-2009 @ 3:23PM
jake_iv said...
Another stupid political play with no practical application!!
A "family car" that cannot go from San Diego to Phoenix without stopping overnight to recharge? And it is in the $50,000 price range. That is the range of two or three new high gas milage "family cars" that could travel across the country using relaying drivers only stopping for fuel, food and sanitation.
A car payment of $1000 a month++; no foreseeable resale value; a battery lifespan of 3 to 5 years, then another $10,000 and scrap if you are in an accident. This thing doesn't have the chance of a snowball in Huston in July.
Reply
10-28-2009 @ 3:25PM
Hank said...
I have one question about this car... If it were dependable and affordable, and everyone bought one... Where the heck are we going to get the electric power to run all of the battery chargers? Our electrical system is already taxed to the limit now because it is so difficult to built new power plants because of all of the "tree huggers" in this country. What would you do if you got up to go to work one morning and you couldn't because the batteries hadn't been recharged because there had been a power failure over night.
I am not knocking the idea of trying to get cars to go green. I drive a Prius that get 50+ mpg. I think that hybrids are the realistic way to go to save fuel and the environment.
Reply
10-28-2009 @ 3:53PM
Mike said...
Exactly right. The whole thing is ludicrous. People think, "that's great, hybrid cars are good for the enviornment!" Guess what boneheads, those cars need to be PLUGGED IN TO CHARGE.