founded anaheim california u.s. 1 august 7 2007 2 3 founder henrik fisker bernhard koehler 4 key people henrik fisker ceo 2007 2012 tom lasorda ceo 2012 tony posawatz ceo 2012 2013 5 bernhard koehler coo 6 products luxury plug in hybrid cars owner henrik fisker fisker brand fisker trademarks and fisker name number of employees 600 2012 53 april 2013 7 8 website http www.fiskerautomotive.com http www.fiskerinc.com fisker automotive was an automaker originally based in anaheim california founded by henrik fisker in 2007 . the company s first product was the fisker karma one of the world s first production plug in hybrid electric vehicles . it debuted at the 2008 north american international auto show and first deliveries were in 2011 . production was suspended in november 2012 due to bankruptcy of its battery supplier a123 systems 9 with about 2 450 karmas built since 2011 . 10 the assets of the company were purchased by wanxiang america corp. a chinese auto parts maker . since henrik fisker owned the fisker trademarks and the fisker brand wanxiang had to rename the company karma automotive . fisker originally intended to sell the karma in late 2009 but after repeated delays 11 12 the environmental protection agency certified the car s vehicle emissions and drive range in october 2011 13 and thereafter fisker commenced delivery of production vehicles in the usa . 14 fisker s problems started with recall of its battery by a123 in december 2011 followed by the bankruptcy of its battery supplier a123 systems in august 2012 the costs involved regarding a recall and repairs to customer cars . 15 in addition to production stopping for over five months with no date announced to recommence the planned production of the second model the fisker atlantic was postponed together with the cessation of development of the new model . 16 fisker eventually declared bankruptcy in november 2013 and in february 2014 the designs engineering and manufacturing facility of the company were bought by chinese auto parts conglomerate wanxiang group excluding the fisker brand and fisker trademarks owned by henrik fisker . 17 contents 1 history 1.1 fisker automotive 1.1.1 company bankruptcy 2 production models 2.1 fisker karma 3 concept vehicles 3.1 fisker surf and sunset 3.2 fisker atlantic 4 sales 5 manufacturing 6 investors 7 see also 8 references 9 external links history edit fisker automotive edit henrik fisker cofounded the company in 2007 with business partner bernhard koehler fisker coachbuild and quantum technologies after securing a relatively small investment from gianfranco pizzuto an italian businessman and palo alto investors . fisker is responsible for designing many premium cars such as the aston martin db9 and v8 vantage artega gt and bmw z8 . he also served as design director and sat on the board at aston martin . prior to fisker automotive fisker and koehler left aston martin in 2005 to establish fisker coachbuild in an attempt to revive the art of coach building automobiles to customer specifications . 18 the fisker tramanto and latigo used chassis and power trains from mercedes benz sl and bmw 6 series automobiles . several were purchased but the business soon gave way to fisker automotive a true automobile manufacturer . in 2009 fisker mentioned plans for another plug in hybrid a high volume vehicle for a lower price subject to getting a u.s. department of energy loan 19 to build about 100 000 vehicles annually in the united states . 20 on april 14 2008 tesla motors filed a lawsuit against fisker automotive alleging they stole tesla s technology and were using it to develop their own hybrid car the fisker karma which was announced at the north american international auto show in january 2008 . tesla s suit claims that the design work done for the model s by fisker coachbuild was substandard and that fisker diverted its best ideas to the karma . 21 in early 2009 the suit was settled in fisker s favor and tesla was ordered to pay fisker more than us 1.1 million in legal fees . 22 23 fisker received a us 528.7 million conditional loan in september 2009 from the department of energy s us 25 billion advanced technologies vehicle manufacturing loan program atvm . 24 25 a total of us 169.3 million is for engineering work with primarily usa suppliers to complete the fisker karma design tools and equipment and develop manufacturing processes . the doe announcement of the conditional loan went on to reveal the code name for the new vehicle the second stage includes a 359.36 million atvm loan for fisker s project nina involving the manufacture of a plug in hybrid in the u.s. 26 expected to reduce pollution corresponding to 30 000 fewer cars . 24 for comparison the us 465 million atvm loan to tesla corresponds to 5 000 fewer cars . 27 project nina was later revealed as the fisker atlantic . on october 27 2009 fisker officials announced that the company had signed a letter of intent to take control of the boxwood road plant previously owned and operated by general motors as wilmington assembly in wilmington delaware 28 production is scheduled to begin in late 2012 . fisker automotive anticipates project nina will ultimately create or support 2 000 factory jobs and more than 3 000 vendor and supplier jobs by 2014 as production ramps up to full capacity of 75 000 100 000 vehicles per year . more than half will be exported the largest percentage of any domestic manufacturer . vice president joe biden attended the announcement . 28 in addition to a purchase price of us 20 million fisker expected to invest us 175 million retooling the plant . 29 the government of delaware provided us 21 million in funding for the plant . 30 fisker later suspended development of the wilmington plant as a result of a freeze on its federal loan and suggested that production might shift elsewhere unless its funding is restored . 30 31 after drawing us 193 million the government froze fisker s credit line in may 2011 after it was determined that the company had not met milestones set as conditions for the loan 31 and hired houlihan lokey to assist in monitoring fisker s progress . 32 the loan received additional scrutiny for being awarded for the manufacture of luxury vehicles that are too expensive for much of the general public . 33 fisker investor ray lane responded that the issues were being blown out of proportion due to election year politics . 33 in february 2012 tom lasorda was named the new ceo 34 and henrik fisker became executive chairman . 35 but only six months later on august 14 la sorda was replaced by tony posawatz previously general motors vehicle line director for the chevrolet volt . 36 in april 2012 fisker announced it had received us 392 million in a recent round of financing . 37 in july 2012 fisker shut down all production and hired financial adviser evercore partners to find new partners and investors but in december 2012 fisker claimed it was not for sale . 38 with government credit lines suspended and no income company officials sought further government loans and subsidies and continued to search for investors lenders and buyers still hoping to find customers in china england and continental europe . 39 by the end of 2012 the search for funding continued and fisker had to cease development of the second model line which was around 90 % complete . 16 the company suffered a setback on october 29 2012 when hurricane sandy flooded and destroyed its entire european shipment of 338 karmas at port newark new jersey . 40 sixteen of the cars burned because six to eight feet of seawater caused a short circuit in a vehicle control unit in one karma and high winds spread the resulting fire to 15 others . 41 the company said that its lithium ion battery was not at fault . 41 insurer xl insurance america initially denied the roughly us 30 million loss claim and was subsequently sued by fisker in new york state supreme court . the case was settled with an undisclosed out of court agreement . 42 company bankruptcy edit henrik fisker who cofounded the company named after him resigned in march 2013 43 after disagreements with management in particular disagreements over business strategy . 44 the new york times reported that fisker s resignation came during takeover negotiations with the zhejiang geely holding group which currently owns volvo cars . 44 45 in late march 2013 fisker hired a law firm to prepare for a possible bankruptcy filing . 46 on april 5 2013 fisker laid off 75 % of its workforce with no notification retaining only a core group of 40 workers as it continues to negotiate with prospective investors . 46 47 on october 11 2013 hybrid technology llc agreed to buy fisker s defaulted government loan at a heavy discount . on november 22 2013 fisker filed its chapter 11 bankruptcy case . concurrently on november 23 2013 fisker agreed to be acquired by hybrid subject to bankruptcy court approval . 48 49 hybrid is owned by a hong kong billionaire richard li . a court hearing on the proposed sale to hybrid was set for january 3 2014 . 49 because hybrid held the purchased government loan which it bid as part of its purchase price for fisker attorneys for fisker told the bankruptcy court that no offer better than hybrid s could be expected . 50 however at the last moment another chinese company parts supplier wanxiang group submitted a competing bid of us 24.75 million supported by the official creditors committee in the case . wanxiang had earlier lost out to hybrid in bidding for purchase of the government s loan to fisker . wanxiang owns a123 systems llc fisker s former battery supplier and fisker argued that wanxiang s conduct was partly responsible for fisker s business failure . as part of its bid wanxiang proposed restarting production of the karma . 51 wanxiang received court approval on february 18 2014 to buy the assets of fisker after a three day auction against hybrid with a bid of 149.2 million with bidding starting at 55 million significantly more than the previous 24.75 million bid . wanxiang claimed that it could restart production estimating that it would sell more than 1 000 fisker karma cars in the first 18 months in the united states and 500 in europe . 52 production models edit fisker karma edit main article fisker karma fisker karma outside the fisker headquarters in anaheim california the karma was a plug in hybrid luxury sports sedan produced by fisker automotive and manufactured at valmet automotive in finland . after missing its initial late 2009 launch and after the launch was rescheduled several times the first deliveries took place in the u.s. in late july 2011 and deliveries to retail customers began in november 2011 . the 20.1 kwh 72.36 mj lithium ion rechargeable battery in each car came from a123 systems in watertown massachusetts . the aluminum frame was engineered by fisker and was supplied by norsk hydro from norway . the cabin interior was designed by fisker automotive but was made in the united states by magna international of canada . the ever powertrain system technically a series hybrid delivered over 400 horsepower and was inspired by quantum technologies a cofounder of and early investor in fisker . 53 the karma was relaunched as the revero in 2016 by another company karma automotive . 54 concept vehicles edit fisker surf and sunset edit fisker sunset concept the fisker surf was unveiled at the 2011 frankfurt motor show fisker unveiled the karma s hardtop convertible concept in 2009 . 55 the fisker surf plug in hybrid concept car was unveiled at the 2011