A politically wired electric-car company that got $529 million in federal loan guarantees decided to start manufacturing the high-tech vehicles in Finland instead of Delaware as promised, according to a report.
Fisker Automotive, a start-up backed by a venture-capital fund where former Vice President Al Gore is a partner, said it couldn’t find any US firm with the technical know-how to make the battery-powered cars, ABC News reported.
“There was no contract manufacturer in the US that could actually produce our vehicle,” com-pany founder and CEO Henrik Fisker told ABC. “They don’t exist here.”
The Department of Energy’s program of backing loans to risky electric ventures has been in the spotlight in the wake of the collapse of Solyndra, a solar-panel maker that burned through $535 million in federally backed loans.
But, Fisker said his company is no Solyndra.
“We’re not in the business of failing; we’re in the business of winning. So we made the right decision for the business,” he reportedly said. “That’s why we went to Finland.”
While Fisker said design work will take place in the United States, the 500 manufacturing jobs will go a Valmet Automotive in Finland.
Fisker had purchased an idle GM assembly plant in Delaware and Vice President Joe Biden heralded the purchase in October 2009, saying the country is making a “bet on the future.”
But, so far the company is a year behind in rolling out its $97,000 Karma car — and only two have actually been delivered with one of them going to Leonardo DiCaprio.
Fisker is backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a California venture-capital firm that counts Gore as a partner.
Firm executives have donated more than $1 million to federal political campaigns over the past twenty years with the bulk going to Democrats, ABC News reported.
Firm CEO John Doerr also sits on President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.