Fisker Automotive Awaits Financing for Proposed $175 Million Delaware Manufacturing Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Fisker Automotive Incorporated (Irvine, California), a joint venture between Fisker Coachbuild and Quantum Technologies, is awaiting evaluations and financing to begin construction on a $175 million automotive electric-hybrid car manufacturing plant in Wilmington, Delaware, also known as Project Nina.

A letter of intent was signed with Motors Liquidation Company (the successor to General Motors) to purchase the Wilmington location for $18 million after a routine four-month evaluation period. The company plans to reopen the shuttered 3.2 million-square-foot General Motors Corporation Plant on Boxwood Road, on a 142-acre site, by refurbishing and retooling the plant for production of the fuel-efficient Fisker Plug-In Hybrids and to produce 100,000 vehicles per year.

In the fall of 2009, Fisker Automotive secured a $528 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy to promote domestic vehicle-manufacturing to build the Project Nina car in Delaware. The company is currently awaiting additional financing from investors before construction can begin. Once final financing and permitting has been secured, a general contractor will be selected. Construction is anticipated to begin in the late summer of 2010, with overall completion slated for the fall of 2012. The plant is expected to employ 2,000 people when it becomes fully operational. The company plans to produce the vehicles at this location and export at least half of the cars to the rest of the world through the plant's railway connection and the nearby Port of Wilmington.

A123 Systems (Boston, Massachusetts) was selected to supply lithium-ion-based systems to Fisker for use in the Karma luxury sedan, which is due in late 2010, and also for Project Nina, which is the lower-end model from Fisker and is scheduled to be produced in 2012. The company was chosen because it met Fisker's performance standards and will be able to allow the company to scale up its production. Fisker originally selected Indiana-based company Enerdel to supply batteries for the Karma, but the company was released as it was not able to rapidly scale up production to the necessary volume.

Fisker Automotive Incorporated, founded in 2005 as a private joint venture, employs 100 people and produces plug-in series hybrid sportscars. The company began production in 2007 after securing $200 million in venture capital from various investors.

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