Irvine based upscale Hybrid Electric Car maker, Fisker Automotive Inc. has got a loan of approximately $529 Million from the Energy department. The low-interest loan has been awarded to give a positive signal towards the development and production of its hybrid electric cars.

Fisker is planning to invest $170 million to complete the production of its Karma sedan. The Karma runs off on a combination of gasoline and rechargeable battery engine. It has been developed in collaboration with Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc. It is set to start selling next summer for $88,000 before rebates.

The next project which is in the process is ‘The Sunset’ which is a sports car and has been Dubbed Project Nina. The rest of the loan will be used in designing hybrid cars for families and other users. Fisker has been able to raise a loan of approximately $100 million from investors. According to the Energy Department, the loan is expected to support 5000 jobs at Fisker’s company, its contractors and suppliers.

The federal money is raised to spur better fuel efficiency in cars. It is a part of the program which has also been offered to other automakers. Finish custom automaker Valmet Automotive OY has been contracted to produce the cars for Fisker as they also make Porsche AG’s Boxster and Cayman models.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 12:21 pm and is filed under Venture Capital Funding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.