“Biden to discuss future of former GM plant in Delaware - Detroit Free Press” plus 4 more

Biden to discuss future of former GM plant in Delaware - Detroit Free Press
NY company to roll out electric cars in 2010 - MSNBC
Reva To Build Electric Cars In New York - Industrial Distribution
Fisker Automotive To Build Electric Cars In Delaware - Industrial Distribution
Fisker Automotive may reopen idled GM plant - Los Angeles Times

Biden to discuss future of former GM plant in Delaware - Detroit Free Press

Posted: 26 Oct 2009 12:14 AM PDT

WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden is expected to announce Tuesday that a California luxury automaker will build plug-in hybrid electric vehicles at a former General Motors plant in Delaware.

The White House said today that Biden, a former senator from Delaware, will make a major announcement about the future of the former GM plant in Wilmington, Del., along with Delaware Gov. Jack Markell and state officials.

Fisker Automotive of Irvine, Calif., plans to revamp GM's Boxwood Road facility to build plug-ins, officials said Friday. The officials declined to be identified before the formal announcement.

The GM plant closed last summer and had produced the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice roadsters, as well as an Opel version that was exported to Europe.

Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker said last week that the automaker would soon announce the location of its refurbished U.S. plant.

The auto manufacturer recently received approval for a $528.7-million government loan to develop plug-ins and is expected to release its first vehicle, the Karma, in the summer of 2010.

The Karma, which will be built in Finland by Valmet Automotive, will start at $87,900 and has pre-sold about 1,500 vehicles.

Most of the government loan will be used to develop a next-generation plug-in, under a program called Project Nina. The vehicle will sell for nearly $48,000 before a federal tax credit of $7,500 for plug-in hybrids and is expected to be built at the Delaware facility with an annual production of about 100,000 vehicles.

Project Nina is expected to reach showrooms by 2012, and Fisker has said a lower-cost, high-volume plug-in could follow.

A Fisker spokesman did not immediately comment today.

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NY company to roll out electric cars in 2010 - MSNBC

Posted: 25 Oct 2009 02:06 PM PDT

SYRACUSE, New York - A new New York company hopes to complete financing of a Syracuse plant to make electric cars by the end of this year and start rolling out plug-in hatchbacks in late 2010.

Bannon Automotive, with a nearly $7 million state package of grants and tax incentives, says it chose the central New York site partly because of the "dogged pursuit" of local, state and federal officials. Bannon will invest $26.5 million into the plant, and U.S. Sen. Charles Shumer says he is trying to help the company obtain $52 million in federal loans and guarantees.

Bannon has a licensing deal with Reva Electric Car Co. of Bangalore, India, to assemble the NXR. The car is sold across Asia and Europe. Bannon CEO Paul Wimer says the plant will produce 15,000 to 20,000 cars a year.

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Reva To Build Electric Cars In New York - Industrial Distribution

Posted: 23 Oct 2009 07:13 AM PDT

Medical

GE Creates Handheld Ultrasound Machine

Johnson & Johnson Waits For U.S. Product Approvals

Kimberly-Clark Buys I-Flow For $276 Million

Pharmaceuticals/Biotech

EU Approves Merck, Schering-Plough Deal

Swine Flu Vaccine Production Behind Schedule

Merck Reports Big Profit Jump

Food/Beverage

Food Manufacturers Halt 'Smart Choices' Program

Vermonster Beer, Monster-Maker Settle Dispute

Glove In Grinder Stops Production At Meatpacker

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Fisker Automotive To Build Electric Cars In Delaware - Industrial Distribution

Posted: 23 Oct 2009 11:59 AM PDT

DOVER, Del. (AP) -- Fisker Automotive, a California-based startup manufacturer of luxury electric vehicles, plans to build plug-in electric cars at a former General Motors assembly plant in Delaware, people with knowledge of the situation said Friday.

Henrik Fisker, the company's co-founder and chief executive, said Tuesday that an announcement about the location of a manufacturing facility was in the works. He declined to elaborate on the site but appeared to rule out a California facility where Toyota plans to halt production in March 2010.

"We'll be making an official announcement on Tuesday, and a senior White House official may be involved," Fisker spokesman Russell Datz said Friday, declining to provide any other details.

A person who has knowledge of the situation but didn't want to be identified because an announcement has not been made, confirmed that Fisker has settled on GM's Boxwood Road facility in Wilmington.

A state government official, who also didn't want to be identified because there's been no announcement, described the deal as "99 percent" complete.

"So it looks like it's going to be a go," said the official, who has been briefed on discussions involving the GM plant. Until it closed this summer, the plant produced the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice roadsters, as well as an Opel version that was exported to Europe.

Joe Rogalsky, a spokesman for Gov. Jack Markell, declined to comment Friday.

"We don't comment on potential economic development opportunities," he said.

Tim Yost, a spokesman for Motors Liquidation Co., a conglomeration of the old GM's liabilities and underperforming assets, declined to comment.

Fisker recently received approval for a $528.7 million government loan to develop plug-ins and is expected to release its first vehicle, the Karma, in the summer of 2010.

The Karma will be built in Finland, but the next-generation plug-in, under a program called Project Nina, will be built at the U.S. facility, with an annual production of about 100,000 vehicles. Project Nina cars, whose production will be supported by about $359 million in government loans, will sell for about $40,000 and are expected to reach showrooms by 2012.

Fisker officials have said the company expects to export half of its Project Nina vehicles, suggesting that access to the nearby Port of Wilmington could have been a factor in choosing the Delaware site.

Michael Robinet, a vice president at CSM Worldwide, an auto industry consulting firm near Detroit, noted that the Wilmington plant also is geared toward the kind of low-volume production sought by Fisker and would come with a trained work force.

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Fisker Automotive may reopen idled GM plant - Los Angeles Times

Posted: 25 Oct 2009 11:03 PM PDT

The White House is expected to announce this week that an Irvine automaker will be setting up shop in a recently idled General Motors plant in Vice President Joe Biden's home state of Delaware.

A source in the vice president's office said Sunday that Biden would be making an announcement at the closed plant on Tuesday but would not provide further details.

The Associated Press reported that Fisker Automotive Inc. of Irvine intended to revamp a Delaware factory for use to produce one of its two electric plug-in hybrid vehicles.

A Fisker spokeswoman declined to comment.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy said that it would lend Fisker $528 million to help it develop and manufacture its two hybrid vehicle models.

At the time, Fisker said it would use the bulk of the money, or nearly $360 million, to develop a more affordable second-generation car, presumably the model slated for the Delaware factory.

The loan to Fisker is part of a $25-billion federal program intended to boost the economy and spur development of alternative vehicles. Fisker's cars run on electricity and gasoline.

When the federal loan was announced, Fisker did not identify where it planned to build its "Project Nina" model other than at "a retooled U.S. assembly plant."

In late July, GM closed its Boxwood Road plant near the city of Newport. It was the last auto plant in Delaware, and the closure seemingly marked the end of an industry in the small state that had brought prosperity to thousands of people for six decades.

Biden was a senator from Delaware until he was elected vice president last year.

The closed Delaware plant -- which most recently produced the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice -- opened in 1947. In the last year, Chrysler also suspended operations at another Delaware plant, eliminating more than 1,000 positions.

It was unclear Sunday whether any jobs in Irvine would be shifted to Delaware.

Fisker, on its website, said that it planned to use $359.3 million of the federal loan to support its Project Nina and would manufacture 75,000 to 100,000 plug-in hybrids a year beginning in 2012. The car is expected to sell for $39,900, after federal tax credits.

Fisker's first-generation car, the luxury Karma, has a base price of $87,900. That version, which is being built in Finland by Valmet Automotive, was engineered to have an all-electric range of at least 50 miles before the need for gas.

Fisker said that it would allocate $169.3 million of the federal money to work with U.S. suppliers to complete the engineering work on the Karma model, with those functions primarily handled in Irvine and Pontiac, Mich.

meg.james@latimes.com

Times staff writer Peter Nicholas contributed to this report.

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