Another Giant FAIL on Obama’s Growing List of Losers...the Fisker Karma. The Fisker Karma is a $112,000 plug-in hybrid luxury sports sedan produced by Fisker Automotive and manufactured at Valmet Automotive.
Fisker Automotive, a California based company with an Al Gore venture capital firm connection was given a $529 million loan from the Department of Energy to provide manufacturing jobs and produce these high-tech electric cars.
But there is only one problem — the cars are built, and the manufacturing plant is, in Finland.
ALL SHOW. NO GO.
Our Fisker Karma cost us $107,850. It is super sleek, high-tech—and now it’s broken.
We have owned our car for just a few days; it has less than 200 miles on its odometer. While doing speedometer calibration runs on our test track (a procedure we do for every test car before putting it in service by driving the car at a constant 65 mph between two measured points), the dashboard flashed a message and sounded a “bing“ showing a major fault. Our technician got the car off the track and put it into Park to go through the owner’s manual to interpret the warning. At that point, the transmission went into Neutral and wouldn’t engage any gear through its electronic shifter except Park and Neutral.
We let the car sit for about an hour and restarted it. We could now engage Drive and the same error message disappeared. After moving it only a few feet the error message reappeared and when we tried to engage Reverse the transmission went straight to Park and again no motion gear could be engaged. After calling the dealer, which is about 100 miles away, they promptly sent a flatbed tow truck to haul away the disabled Fisker. We buy about 80 cars a year and this is the first time in memory that we have had a car that is undriveable before it has finished our check-in process. - Yahoo Motors/Consumer Reports
FROM AUTOWEEK:
There’s far more to this scam than even the above article reports. The factory was formerly a plant where the Saturn Sky/Pontiac Solstice’s/Opel were made.
“The old General Motors plant in Delaware that until July cranked out sports cars for Pontiac, Saturn and Opel will be sold and retooled to build plug-in hybrids with UAW workers.
Fisker Automotive said Tuesday that it will buy the plant, located in Wilmington, Del., from Motors Liquidation Co.–the old General Motors Corp.–for $18 million. If Fisker’s plans come to fruition, production at the plant could start in late 2012.
Another $175 million will be spent to refurbish and retool the factory over the next three years, Fisker said in a statement. The company has qualified for $528.7 million in federal loans from the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program.
Fisker plans to build a mid-sized plug-in hybrid family sedan that will sell for $39,900 after federal tax credits. The company plans to sell between 75,000 and 100,000 units per year, with about 50 percent to be exported.
But a lot has to go right before that can happen.
The company has to hire and retrain a work force; design, develop and certify the car; and establish a supply base. So far, Fisker has sold only a few hand-built luxury cars based on BMW underpinnings. Its first higher-volume car, the $87,000 Karma, is slated to start production in Finland next year.
CEO Henrik Fisker said Wilmington was selected for its production capacity, world-class paint facilities, access to modern shipping ports, rail lines and skilled work force.
GM built the plant in 1947. Over the years it has built more than 8.5 million cars. Production capacity is 300,000 per year.
The Fisker press release includes a statement from the plant’s union, UAW Local 435.
“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,” Gary Casteel, the UAW director responsible for the plant, said in the Fisker statement.
According to its Web site, the local represents about 500 employees and 2,300 retirees at the plant.”
Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20091027/CARNEWS/910279994#ixzz1of2WNgOT
