Fisker Automotive
Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Fisker Automotive was an American company. It produced the Fisker Karma, which was one of the world's first production luxury plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The company was founded in 2007 by Henrik Fisker, a Danish automobile designer.
Company type | Private corporation |
---|---|
Industry | Automotive Luxury plug-in hybrid cars |
Founded | August 2007; 16 years ago (2007-08)[1][2] (as Fisker Automotive) Anaheim, California, U.S. |
Founders | Henrik Fisker Bernhard Koehler[3] |
Defunct | 2014 (2014) |
Fate | Declared bankruptcy in November 2013; assets bought by Wanxiang in February 2014 as foundation of Karma Automotive; Henrik Fisker subsequently founded Fisker Inc in 2016. |
Successor | Karma Automotive Fisker Inc. |
Headquarters | Anaheim, California, U.S.[4] |
Key people | Tony Posawatz (CEO)[5] Bernhard Koehler (COO)[6] |
Products | |
Number of employees | 53 (March 2013)[7][8] |
The company received significant private and public investment, including a $529 million loan from the federal government. The company raised over $1 billion from private investors such as the Kleiner Perkins venture capital firm.[9]
However, it repeatedly missed production deadlines and production of the Fisker Karma was suspended in November 2012 with about 2,450 Karmas built since 2011 and just over 2,000 cars sold worldwide.[10][11] The New York Times described the company as the "Solyndra of the electric car industry" and a "debacle".[12] The company's federal loan was suspended in 2011; the government recovered some of the invested funds, but nevertheless took a $139 million loss.[13]
In February 2014, Fisker Automotive's Karma vehicle design, tooling and a manufacturing facility in Delaware were purchased by Chinese auto parts conglomerate Wanxiang Group. In 2016, Wanxiang would rename the holding company for the assets of Fisker Automotive to Karma Automotive.[14]