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Alternative Energy - Friday, September 25, 2009

Fisker Auto Lands $529M Gov't Loan For Electric Vehicle

As we have commented before, we think the Fisker Automotive is the real deal, while Tesla is a pretender in the electric auto biz. So we are stoked to see that Fisker got a $529M U.S. government loan to help build a hybrid sports car. Tesla had seen a $465M government loan.

Fisker said most of its DOE loan will be used to finance U.S. production of a $40K family sedan that has yet to be designed. It currently is building a more expensive sports car in Finland that will sell for about $89K.

Fisker's top investors include Kleiner Perkins and Eco-Drive Capital Partners. The startup had closed an $85M round last April on top of an $65M round last September.

Fisker's launch car - The Karma - will be able to go from 0 to 60 miles in 5.8 seconds with a top speed at 125 miles per hour. Fisker is planning to make three other variants of the plug-in Karma sedan: a convertible, coupe and possibly a four-door sport-utility vehicle. They would launch following the sedan and be available by 2012. Fisker's goal is to take 3.3% of the luxury market in the US. The firm says that revenue should hit $1.3B in 2011. The car maker is led by former Aston Martin designer Henrik Fisker. More than 1500 people have put down payments on their Karmas including Al Gore who is an investor.

BTW - The Wall Street Journal broke the story and oddly insinuated that this is a sweet-heart deal because Al Gore is an important politician and is a Fisker backer. We agree with TheDeal in wondering why The Journal jumped to this conclusion given that there is no evidence. Al Gore does not seem to be involved with Tesla or a range of other startups like A123 which have won government financial support. Moreover, Fisker is clearly one of the leading electric vehicle prospects. We would much rather see Fisker get this loan than Detroit. Hey WSJ, save your opinions for the OpEd pages. If you don't have proof of a shady deal don't run with it.