Officially Official: Fisker buys GM's Wilmington Delaware plant
by Sam Abuelsamid on Oct 27th 2009 at 1:00PM 
In Wilmington, Delaware this morning, Governor Jack Markell was joined by Vice President Joe Biden and Henrik Fisker (seen at right) for the official announcement about the purchase of General Motors' closed plant there. Fisker will re-tool the plant to build a new, more affordable plug-in hybrid sedan to slot in below its more luxurious Karma. The goal is to have the model sell for under $40,000 after federal tax credits. The current schedule is to have the car in production by the end of 2012 with volumes getting up to 75,000-100,000 units annually by 2014. Fisker has moved up its development schedule for what they are calling Project Nina thanks to the $528 million low cost loan it recently received courtesy of the Department of Energy. During the announcement, Fisker stated that he wants to export half of the production from the plant while creating 5,000 jobs in the U.S. (2,000 at the plant and 3,000 at suppliers). The local UAW president was also on hand, so it looks like the plant will remain unionized, which is very unusual for a startup auto plant.
Fisker is paying $18 million for the factory from Motors Liquidation which is the remainder of "Old GM" which is selling off assets from bankruptcy court. The plant most recently produced the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky, both of which ended production last spring.
Gallery: Fisker Karma
[Source: Fisker Automotive | Photo by Jeff Fusco/Getty]
PRESS RELEASE:
Fisker Automotive to Buy U.S. Assembly Plant to Build Affordable Plug-in Hybrid Cars
WILMINGTON, Del., Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Fisker Automotive has selected the Wilmington Assembly plant in Wilmington Delaware to build affordable plug-in hybrid cars.
Fisker executives made the announcement inside the dormant facility today, joined by Vice President Joe Biden, Delaware Governor Jack Markell and other state officials.
The plant will support Fisker Automotive's Project NINA, the development and build of an affordable, family-oriented plug-in hybrid sedan costing about $39,900 after federal tax credits.
Production is scheduled to begin in late 2012. Fisker Automotive anticipates Project NINA will ultimately create or support 2,000 factory jobs and more than 3,000 vendor and supplier jobs by 2014, as production ramps up to full capacity of 75,000-100,000 vehicles per year. More than half will be exported, the largest percentage of any domestic manufacturer.
The modernized Wilmington Assembly plant was selected for its size, production capacity, world-class paint facilities, access to shipping ports, rail lines and available skilled workforce.
"This is a major step toward establishing America as a leader of advanced vehicle technology," said Henrik Fisker, CEO. "Wilmington is perfect for high quality, low volume production and will soon be the proud builder of world-class, fuel-efficient Fisker plug-in hybrids."
Fisker Automotive has signed a letter of intent with Motors Liquidation Co. (MLC), formerly known as General Motors Corp. to purchase the Wilmington plant for $18 million after a routine four-month evaluation period.
An additional $175 million will be spent to refurbish and retool the factory over the next three years.
Funds will come from a conditional loan of $528.7M the Department of Energy awarded the company in September.
The loan is part of the $25B Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing loan program (ATVM) appropriated by Congress in 2007 to help the United States lead in the development and manufacturing of advanced technology vehicles.
The company's first car, the Fisker Karma, will be the world's first production plug-in hybrid when it goes on sale this summer at retailers in the U.S. and Europe.
Fisker plug-in hybrid cars will help remove the country's dependence on foreign energy by eliminating the need for 42 million barrels of oil by 2016. They will also offset 8 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
"With our close-knit business, government, and educational communities and our potential to respond rapidly to new opportunities, today's announcement is a testament to what works best in Delaware. Fisker is a perfect partner in shaping Delaware's economic future, and we are thrilled that the vehicle that can reshape the automobile industry will be built here in Delaware, by Delaware workers." said Governor Jack Markell (D-Delaware).
Gary Casteel, UAW director responsible for the plant, said, "It gives me great pride to give UAW Local 435 workers the opportunity to partner with Fisker Automotive to create a greener America by building a plug-in hybrid car that will compete globally."
ABOUT FISKER AUTOMOTIVE, INC.
Fisker Automotive is a privately owned, premium American car company with a vision to lead the automotive industry into the next-generation of automobiles with high-end design expertise and eco-friendly powertrain technology. Global headquarters are in Irvine, California, USA.
The company was created in 2007 to leverage the design capabilities of Fisker Coachbuild, LLC, founded by auto design veterans Henrik Fisker and Bernhard Koehler, and the PHEV powertrain capabilities of Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:QTWW) , a major Tier 1 supplier of clean vehicle technologies to the automotive OEMs. Previously, Fisker, CEO, was design director for Aston Martin and president and CEO of BMW's DesignworksUSA. Koehler, COO, led operations for Ford's Global Advanced Design Studio and created concept cars for Aston Martin, MINI and BMW.
ABOUT WILMINGTON ASSEMBLY
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Sea Urchin 1:09PM (10/27/2009)
This car is a real bargain at 40K, it looks like a full on luxury car. A car that looks this good with that interior will normally sell for 50+K by itself with any advanced powertrains.
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zamafir 1:10PM (10/27/2009)
um... fail.
Jay Evans 1:15PM (10/27/2009)
Reading is fundamental
"Fisker will re-tool the plant to build a new, more affordable plug-in hybrid sedan to slot in below its more luxurious Karma."
Andre 1:16PM (10/27/2009)
That's not the car they will sell under 40k bro, re-read the article they are going to make another model which be a more affordable for general consumers in 2012, the car in the photo is the Karma which is already on sale or by the end of the year.
Sea Urchin 1:24PM (10/27/2009)
Now look here all of you, reading comprehension has never been my strong point. Yeah i flunked all the reading classes in school.
Lucas 1:36PM (10/27/2009)
The most beautiful 4-door penned. Ever.
zamafir 1:38PM (10/27/2009)
@Sea Urchin - lol, fair enough. there there guy.
Temple 1:48PM (10/27/2009)
That's $40k (after tax-rebates). Which puts in expected price of the Volt.
There are several things here that reek of BS:
1.) First, they plan on selling 75,000-100,000 units a annually. That's an incredibly high-number, the 3-series sells around 100k units a year in the US. And that's not a $40k vehicle that requires a tax-rebate. We're talking about insanely high numbers for a company that is starting from nothing.
2.) Secondly, this is a company with no brand recognition and more important no infrastructure to support and maintain tens of sounds of cars. There is no dealer network in place to support 75-100k cars. And its hard to imagine they can ramp up from zero to 100,000 in 3-4 years.
3.) Why is this being built in a UAW plant? For a no-brand upstart, it would have been much more preferable to move away from union-labor, there are a ton of non-union factories recently closed in the US which would have served as a better alternative. Is UAW labor a prerequisite to getting Government funding?
4.) Fourth, the US Government is giving this company $528.7 million, and the Vice-President is to announce the deal. This whole thing reeks of politics. I'm looking at this as a massive waste of the tax-payers half-a-billion dollars. If the government wants to invest this much money into these technologies then why not give that $528 million to build a full-scale Li-ion battery factory in the United States so that we don't have to buy the batteries from Asia (the Volt's battery comes from South Korea). The battery is the single technology holding back EVs and PHEVs and is the most expensive component, yet the US has no presence in that area globally. Why not use that half billion for that instead? The last thing the US needs is one more car manufacter.
letstakeawalk 2:25PM (10/27/2009)
Temple
1. Fisker want to sell those cars world-wide - they anticipate over 50% going to European customers.
2. In Europe, Fisker has very good name recognition, Henrik is a well-known designer and runs a high-end coachbuilder called "Fisker Coachbuild". In the US, NOT being a major automaker will likely HELP their acceptance. People want a new car from a new kind of company. Here's the dealer list so far:
http://karma.fiskerautomotive.com/files/Fisker-Charter-Retailer-List.pdf
3. OK, I'll give you that. I hope the UAW doesn't mess this whole thing up for every one. At any rate, Fisker still has production contracts with Valmet in Finland, so at least the Karma is safe. The Delaware facility has some major pros: it was recent modernized, it has on-site power generation and wastewater treatment (for a "green" company to control its own footprint) as well as rail access to a major automobile shipping port. Many of those Fiskers will be going overseas...
4. The whole thing does reek of politics. The Bush Administration called for the development of alternative cars. They created the funding mandates and programs to get that development going. It's just fate that the Democrats are in power when the loans are being handed out. And yes, the US can always use another carmaker or two - we are one of the world's largest markets, so why not build the cars here?
some1 2:53PM (10/27/2009)
UAW!? NOOOO!!!!!!!!
this company is dead before it started.
daleam 4:32PM (10/27/2009)
Temple - It says that Fisker is buying the plant. Unless I missed it in the post, it doesn't mean that UAW labor comes with it.
Toy Yoda 5:09PM (10/27/2009)
@Temple.
Also, in Europe, they know that Fisker penned the DB9, a really beautiful car. Fisker is pretty well known in the automotive circle.
@SeaUrchin
The sedan depicted in the video is going to sell for about $80k, which is still a real bargain for what you get, which is a performant car, with great mpg, and gorgeous looks. I would think Fisker could sell his car for $120-150k with those looks alone. So your original point about it being a bargain still holds. So you don't need to read. :)
I'd wait for the Karma2 or Karma3. I think whey will put a bigger motor with 2-3 gears in it, to get the acceleration down to 5.0 seconds or better.
The candy red car in the back ground is the Karma Sunset, which is the convertible version.
I'm curious to know how the $40k car will look like. If it looks anything like this Karma and performs similarly, it will be another big bargain.
Temple 8:35PM (10/27/2009)
@letstakeawalk
Fisker is most definitely not well-known amongst the general public. Would you spend your $40k+ on a Fisker versus a BMW, Mercedes, or Audi?
If you randomly asked anyone who is walking into a luxury car dealer I'd be surprised is 1 in 20 people knew what a Fisker was. An even if you knew, the service, reliability, and maintenance of this vehicle is entirely unknown. A car is the second largest investment a person makes after home ownership, atop this, this is likely going to be a $47,500 car at least (being that tax rebates max out at $7,500 for PHEV and EV vehicles).
Also, you're saying that the US needs another manufacter???? When in the last year we've seen an attrition of American brands in the US. We lost Pontiac, Hummer, Saturn, etc, etc, etc. The US is no longer the largest car market in the world, its behind China, and its an over-saturated one at that. We should be strengthening the brands we have instead of creating an unknown one.
If the DOE wanted to support an expensive sport-luxury car they should have built it under the Cadillac brand, not Fisker. At least that way it would have helped other Cadillac cars in terms of image, and not wasted US tax payer money.
The only reason this deal got through with Fisker is that it would save UAW jobs. That's all...
zamafir 1:12PM (10/27/2009)
i'd rather be reading that the karma is, in fact, on sale.... once they start selling them i'll get a little more excited about the prospect of another model. With telsa taking as long as they are to develop their sedan i'm not holding my breath here.
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letstakeawalk 1:20PM (10/27/2009)
The Karma should be out by May or July 2010. That's what Henrik Fisker's been telling journalists itching for test drives.
Dieselstation 1:13PM (10/27/2009)
I actually shook Mr. Fisker's hand once at the Father's Day Rodeo Drive car show. Great guy. And even better car designer.
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Brian05SEL 1:12PM (10/27/2009)
So much for Fisker taking DOE money to ship jobs overseas... (thanks for reporting the real news, Fox!)
This is great news though, especially for the people of Wilmington. I'm glad to see that the job losses from GM closing that plant won't deal such a harsh blow to the city's economy.
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Dude 1:35PM (10/27/2009)
Well, the Karma is still being built in Finland.
Glock23 1:14PM (10/27/2009)
" The goal is to have the model sell for under $40,000 after federal tax credits. "
How about selling an affordable product people what to buy WITHOUT the taxpayer's underwriting the purchase price and artificially boosting the demand?
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zamafir 1:20PM (10/27/2009)
how about it's not technically possible right now given the limitations of battery technology. how about the 'green' way always costs more because it involves less waste/new tech?
ideally it'd be nice, but comparing a tech that's had a century hiatus from the car industry to one which has been refined for a century is ridiculous.