Fisker Automotive, an electric car manufacturer based out of Southern California announced that it had laid off employees and contractors at both their headquarters and assembly facility in Wilmington, Delaware as they attempt to renegotiate terms from their $529-million loan from the US Department of Energy.

Fisker spokesman, Roger Ormisher, recently told the Associated Press that Fisker Automotive hopes that they can “reach a resolution soon” with the Department of Energy on revised terms on their low-interest loans. Recently, Fisker missed critical deadlines on the development of their second vehicle which is currently called Project Nina. Project Nina is supposed to be a mid-sized, plug-in sedan to complement the already existing Karma model.

Even though Fisker claims that much of the design, engineering, development, and testing has been done on Project Nina, the automaker said in October that production wouldn’t begin until mid-2013 though some production would occur before the end of 2012.

The Fisker Karma hasn’t been a huge success either, marketed as a range-extended electric luxury sport sedan. It had several delays in its launch and recently went through a recall to prevent a potential battery-pack leak. The layoffs that were announced included 40 employees and contractors in Anaheim, California and 26 workers at their Wilmington plant. Fisker Automotive is currently looking to conserve its cash while renegotiating their loans.

GALLERY: Fisker Karma

[Source: Associated Press]

Electric car maker Fisker Automotive is expanding its grip on worldwide sales by pushing its new Karma in Canada.

To bring the cars to the Canadian market with the smallest investment possible, Fisker partnered with existing retailers in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver to market its car. In Toronto, a standalone store will be constructed in a well to do area of the city to try and push sales up in the Country’s largest market

Electric vehicle sales in Canada are also backed by the Canadian government as well as provincial governments, with Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec offering incentives up to $8,500 CAD on new electric vehicle purchases. Ontario residents also get the benefit of unrestricted access to high occupancy vehicle lanes for plug-in cars. The province of Quebec is offering to pay for half the cost of a charging station.

Citing complex certification processes, Fisker Automotive has cut its sales target for the plug-in hybrid electric Karma once again.

Initially set at 15,000 units for 2012, in November the American start-up automaker headed by renowned automotive designer Henrik Fisker shopped the forecast to 12,000 units in November. Now Fisker has reduced that goal once again, to 10,000 units.

According to the company, extensive mileage and emissions certifications are to blame for getting the car to market slower than expected. In addition, Fisker has encountered other issues with a recent software glitch that halted production, as well as a recall as a result of a possible coolant leak.

GALLERY: Fisker Karma

[Source: Just-Auto]

The world’s first luxury electric car, the Fisker Karma, is currently on display at the one of the world’s most famous department stores, Harrods in Knightsbridge, London. The Karma will be on display throughout the busy winter sale period until February 4th, 2012.

Those interested in purchasing a Fisker Karma will be connected with international dealers for test drives but will be able to take a tour of the vehicle at Harrods and offered the chance to virtually configure their own model.

The 2012 Fisker Karma is priced from $102,000 and is the world’s first true luxury electric vehicle. Harrods offers the finest merchandise with unrivaled choice and a bespoke personal service, attracting loyal customers from all around the world.

“Harrods is one of the most prestigious retail sites in the world, which is perfect for our car,” said Henrik Fisker, co-founder and CEO of Fisker Automotive. “The landmark store attracts hundreds of thousands of customers from all over the world during January, and we look forward to introducing them to Fisker Automotive.”

Before the New Year, Fisker announced that their Karma plug-in hybrid luxury sedan would be recalled for a potential battery coolant leak issue, and it appears that they’ve worked quickly to resolve it. Now the American green car automaker has said that a majority of all customer cars and dealer-held vehicles with the A123-supplied battery pack have brand new battery packs fitted, or a repair has been done to the hose clamp assembly.

It’s been a mere two weeks since Fisker was first made aware of the issue, so kudos to them for acting quickly in resolving the issue. The remaining customers have already been contacted and appointments are in the books for their replacement battery installations.

“We will always react quickly to ensure the safety and quality of our cars. We decided that the immediate replacement of the battery pack in every vehicle was the right approach for all our customers,” said Henrik Fisker, CEO of Fisker Automotive. “We identified the appropriate fix, made our retailers aware of the situation and began contacting all our customers within 48 hours and were well advanced with the recall ourselves before the official posting on the NHSTA website.”

The “potential safety issue” announced by Fisker automotive earlier this week has now become a fully fledged recall.

The recall will affect approximately 239 vehicles that were built between July 1st, 2011 through to November 3rd 2011 , says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA). Fisker says that the problem is caused by certain hose clamps connected to the cooling system that have been positioned incorrectly. When these clamps fail it has the potential for a coolant leak directly into the battery compartment which would cause a short circuit and inevitably a fire.

“Our quality check procedures have enabled us to identify a potential battery coolant issue at the factory and initiate a rapid response program to address it in the marketplace” said Henrik Fisker, chief designer and CEO at Fisker automotive in an open letter posted on the companies website addressed to all customers. “As a precaution we are replacing battery packs in the 50 cars already in customer hands with brand new ones, and are making modifications to address the issue in the more than 1,200 Karmas already produced and in production”.

The recall will begin during January of 2012 and will be free of charge to all clients. Anyone interested in more information can contact Fisker consumer affairs at 1-855-575-7577, option 2, 6am – 7pm (PST) Monday through Friday.

Last week we brought you a story about Aperta employees boorishly smashing the remaining shells of their 2e electric vehicle, including quotes from their disgruntled former CEO, Steve Fambro. You may wonder how things went so wrong.

If you haven’t been following the Aptera saga, or if you don’t know what Aptera is, this is a good time to jump in.

Rewind to 2006 where founders Steve Fambro and Chris Anthony found a company called Aptera with the intent to build and sell super-efficient electric vehicles. They planned to take advantage of a program offered by the Department of Energy by which companies could take over abandoned factories and enjoy low-interest loans if they made vehicles 25 percent more efficient than those they would replace.

Aptera had a funky three-wheeled car in mind that looked a lot like a tear drop made out of plastic composite. In September of 2008 Fambro found himself on the outside of the company, replaced as CEO by Paul Wilbur.

By December, Aptera’s application for money from the DoE had been submitted and promptly rejected— three-wheeled cars apparently didn’t qualify.

Over the next two years Tesla and Fisker both recieve hundreds of millions of dollars in DoE funding, and three wheel cars are provisioned for subsidy by the DoE.

In 2010 Aptera re-applies and was denied funding again, this time becuause the DoE says they cannot pay back capital costs for the company.

Shortly afterwards, the company re-allocated their remaining resources to developing a four-wheeled sedan that had a better chance of catching on.

At this point the DoE committed $150 million in loans on the condition that the company also secure $80 million in private funding. That proved to be too much. Aptera simply couldn’t find investors to pour money into their company after another operation failed to get funding because of their similar plastic composite bodies.

By early December of this year the company had run out of cash and needed to shut down. They decided to execute the close early enough to distribute remaining cash reserves among their employees as severance.

In an interview with Green Car Reports, Wilbur admitted that they spent too much time chasing DoE finding and that a better path would have been to look for private money from the beginning. The DoE, he said, took far too long to yield any money for Aptera to stay afloat.

[Source: Green Car Reports]

Just as the Karma begins to enter showrooms, Fisker is raring to get a move on its Project Nina. However, despite the optimism, it hasn’t been smooth sailing for Fisker. Although it was initially intended for the $50,000 Nina hybrid to be completed by 2012, circumstances require the product’s launch to be pushed back a year to mid-2013.

Quite a lofty bar has been set as Fisker’s team of 120 personnel expands another 2,500 workers to operate a made-for-Nina manufacturing plant in Delaware. While humble sales numbers are expected for the Fisker Karma, company fonder and CEO Henrik Fisker intends for Project Nina to reach a production volume of 100,000 cars per year.

Earlier, CEO Henrik Fisker announced that Nina will be a competitively priced smaller hybrid sedan, receiving 2.0 liter supercharged TwinPower engines supplied by BMW.

[Source: DelewareOnline via Carscoop]

California told 85,000 hybrid drivers to move over, literally. Now everyone is feeling the sting.

Starting last July the yellow stickers allowing hybrid owners to drive alone in the high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane expired. The move came in preparation for an anticipated increase in electric vehicles on the road that will be allowed to retain the privilege. Though it may be the case that EVs are gaining popularity, pushing hybrids into regular traffic is causing problems for everyone.

According to a study released Monday by the University of California-Berkeley, the change had the effect you might expect: regular traffic speeds decreased and HOV speeds went up.

That isn’t all though, traffic actually slowed in HOV lanes at points where drivers try to merge back into regular traffic because of the slowdown. In other words, drivers in both lanes are noticing new slowdowns.

The report was based on six months of roadway sensor speed and congestion data, and written by Michael Cassidy, a civil and environmental engineering professor, and Katae Jang, a doctoral student in that department.

Cassidy said there is still plenty of space for hybrids in the HOV lanes, even with the new EVs on the road.

The only new production cars available that meet the standard are the Tesla Roadster and the Nissan Leaf. The Chevy Volt doesn’t qualify because of a specific California emissions law, though Gm says it will be addressing the issue soon.

If they don’t, they may find fierce competition. Toyota will be releasing the 2012 Prius Plug-In soon, which qualifies for the sticker. So does the 2012 Fisker Karma.

[Source: Green Car Reports]

Fisker Automotive has finally been given EPA certification and as a result can start officially selling cars. The U.S.-based builder of luxurious yet green vehicles has received a 52 MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent) rating for its Karma sedan.

With a 32 mile electric-only range, the Karma’s gasoline only rating is a less impressive 20-mpg. To put this into perspective, the Chevy Volt gets a 93 MPGe rating with a 37-mpg rating on gas only, whereas the Prius Plug-in Hybrid is 87-MPGe rating with a high 49-mpg on gas only.

It’s important to point out, however, that the Karma is also a stunning looking luxury sedan that’s capable of accelerating to 60 mph in just 5.9 seconds.

“We are delighted to have EPA certification and fuel economy ratings that verify the Karma’s remarkable green credentials.” said Henrik Fisker, CEO and co-founder of Fisker Automotive.

“As with all electric vehicles, range varies greatly on the conditions of the road and how you drive the car.  We firmly believe that most owners will get up to 50 miles of driving range on a single charge and will use our electric-only mode most of the time they drive the car, thereby running on zero emissions.  Overall, we are very pleased with the results of EPA’s tests. The Karma is a groundbreaking product with a unique powertrain.”

GALLERY: Fisker Karma