Electric car maker Fisker reports layoffs
DOVER, Del. — Fisker Automotive, an electric car maker that received a half-billion-dollar loan from the federal government, said Monday that it has laid off workers in Delaware and California.
The layoffs include 26 workers at a former General Motors plant in Wilmington that Fisker is retooling to manufacture its Nina plug-in hybrid sedan. Another 40 contractors and employees who were working in design and development of Fisker’s Karma luxury car in Anaheim, Calif., also have been cut.
The layoffs come as Fisker is seeking to renegotiate its loan agreement with the Department of Energy.
Fisker has received $193 million of the $529 million DOE loan, mostly for work on the Karma, which sells for about $100,000.
The introduction of the Karma was delayed because of regulatory issues and battery pack problems that prompted a voluntary safety recall by Fisker.
The DOE made loan availability for the Nina project contingent on Fisker meeting development and sales milestones for the Karma,
Fisker missed those milestones, and. the company is now negotiating with the DOE to modify the loan agreement so funds for that project can be released.
“We hope we can reach a resolution soon,” Fisker spokesman Roger Ormisher said Monday.
Fisker has said it expects eventually to employ more than 2,000 people at the Delaware plant, where production of the Nina was to begin later this year, with sales starting next year. The company reported in October that more than 100 workers were reconfiguring the plant.
“They had not geared up yet because they’re still behind schedule on the Karma,” said Delaware economic development director Alan Levin.
“We knew that this was always a possibility,” Levin said of the layoffs. “What they’re trying to do is conserve cash.”
But Levin said he had spoken with Fisker co-founder and chief operating officer Bernhard Koehler last week and believes that the company and the DOE are close to signing an agreement.
A DOE spokesman did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.
In 2009, Vice President Joe Biden joined Fisker officials in Delaware in announcing the resurrection of the former GM plant, and Delaware’s Council on Development Finance approved a $12.5 million loan to Fisker to help build the Nina in Delaware. The loan will become a grant if Fisker spends at least $175 million renovating the old GM facility and shows that it created 2,495 jobs in five years.
Fisker said in a news release that much of the engineering, design and development work on Nina is complete and it expects to ramp up operations again quickly.
The company attributed the layoffs in California to Fisker’s desire to conserve costs following the completion of design and development work on the Karma.