California-based electric car maker Fisker Automotive said today that the company laid off workers in California and Delaware while renegotiating the terms of $529 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy.
A total of 66 people were involved in the layoffs, including 26 workers at a plant in Wilmington that Fisker retooled from its former owner General Motors for Fisker’s second plug-in hybrid sedan, Nina. The other 40 are contractors and employees working for Fisker’s first car Karma in Anaheim, Calif.
The Los Angeles Times reports the company to have 600 employees remaining in Anaheim.
When the DOE made the half-billion-dollar loan available to Fisker, the automaker had to meet development and sales milestones for the Karma. To date, Fisker received $193 million from the $529 million DOE loan, but missed the milestones.
Fisker were planning on using the remainders of the loan to start Project Nina, but the L.A. Times reported that the agency is withholding the loan. The Detroit News reported that Fisker has not received any of the disbursement from DOE since May 2011.
“Our loan guarantees have strict conditions in place to protect taxpayers. The Department only allows the loan to be disbursed as the company meets certain milestones and demonstrates results," said Damien LaVera, DOE spokesman.
However, DOE remains hopeful about the future of the company and is reviewing the revised plan.
“As Fisker works through those issues and incorporates lessons learned from the production of the Karma, the Department is working with Fisker to review a revised business plan and determine the best path forward so the company can meet its benchmarks, produce cars and employ workers here in America.”
In the mean time, Fisker is pursuing alternative financing. The company is said to have raise $260 million in private equity in late 2011.
“We’re always in the market for equity,” said Fisker spokesman Robert Ormisher.
Fisker is a start-up company founded in 2007 for developing plug-in hybrid electric cars. The company delivered around 250 to 300 Karmas, each costing about $100,000, according to Ormisher. The company planned to assemble its second car Nina at the former GM plant in Delaware and to create about 2,500 jobs.
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