Hybrid electric cars to be built at idled GM plant in Del.
Published: October 27, 2009
WILMINGTON, Del. -- California luxury automaker Fisker Automotive is buying an idled General Motors assembly plant in Delaware to produce plug-in hybrid electric cars.
Officials said today that Fisker has agreed to buy the plant for $18 million and will spend another $175 million to refurbish it over three years.
Vice President Joe Biden was among those on hand to announce a new lease on life for the GM plant, which produced the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice roadsters, as well as an Opel version that was exported to Europe, before closing this summer.
Fisker recently received approval for $528.7 million in government loans to develop plug-ins, and the next-generation cars to be built in Delaware are expected to reach showrooms by 2012.
-- The Associated Press
Reader Reactions
Of course a survey shows almost half of the respondents would buy an imaginary electric car. And imaginary car will always poll better then a real car.
I’d like an imaginary car that runs on Lucky Charms cereal. As long as the imaginary car is imaginary, it will be perfect with no flaws.
But wait until the consumers get their eyes and hands on an actual one that sounds like a Norelco shaver, has the pick up of a turtle with a piano on it’s shell and takes hours upon hours to refuel. No one will want one.
Americans yearn for power. It is who we are.
I, for one would be a buyer of a plug-in electric car, but I’m not sure if I would buy one from Obama Motors! Look, we recharge our cell-phones every night, and it takes a few hours for that to happen, why would recharging an automobile be any worse? I typically drive under 50 miles a day, and getting into the car in the morning with a full charge would be great.
I see the repurposing of this plant however as a bit of a bone-headed maneuver on GM’s part. This plant used to build the Pontiac Solstice, and Saturn Sky. These cars went away not because they were unpopular (they were getting to be quite popular actually) or because they were too big (they were two seat sports cars) They went away because GM cancelled the nameplates they were under, and then sold off their source of the turbocharged engines they used…they sold off SAAB. The result was that GM lost what was a rather profitable car! For all of you who think that the government will run healthcare efficiently, this is a blalant and obvious sign of the how efficient and effective the government knows how to run a business!!
Dave,
It’s not cheap, but it has very few moving parts and costs about a buck to recharge.
Anon: How much does it cost? Does it cost as much as that car being made in Scandinavia that just received AMERICAN tax money to finance it? Are any notables in bed with that venture like Al ‘I invented the hybrid too’ Gore is with the gang in Scandinavia? Just asking. Being a consumer, I would like to know all the facts to avoid getting scr…ed.
Dave,
There is a big market for these cars. A recent survey found that around 48 percent of American consumers said they would be extremely or very interested in buying a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.
Not all 48% want to be early adopters. But that’s a large enough percent of the population who feel that the 40-mile driving range is within their comfort zone that manufacturers are scrambling to move vehicles off the assembly line.
The Frisker is a high-end sedan that uses the same battery plus gasoline engine recharger concept as the Chevy Volt. Frisker’s sports coupe is being made in Europe and should be available in the US in 2010.
drhoagie: I knew there had to be an angle to this. Critics of Administration critics say we’re a bunch of wacko conspiracy theorists, but then we read stories like this one about transparent and unrepentant attempts to use taxpayer money to promote partisan political initiatives. Who’s gonna buy the plug-ins? How much will they cost? Will the loan ever get repaid? Will the UAW be liable when this venture goes in the tank?
The lazy AP neglected to bring you the rest of the story.
Fisker is bringing in UAW workers. Costly and unproductive labor was the reason GM had to close the plant in the first place.
Someone needs to ask if ObamaMotors is willing to sell mothballed GM plants to non union manufacturers, or are they gifts to political contributors.
The teachers unions have bullied municipalities to prevent old schools from being sold to private companies who will turn them into…..schools.
Is this a coincidence the new plant will be union or is it another example of Obama nepotism?
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