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Fisker Hits the Skids
Green Technology Featured Articles
April 09, 2013

Fisker Hits the Skids

By Cheryl Kaften
TMCnet Contributor


Irvine, California-based Fisker Automotive, apparently does not have the good Karma that its first plug-in electric sports sedan had promised back in July of 2011. The fledgling automaker is facing a Chapter 11 filing—as well as a federal class-action lawsuit on behalf of the 160 employees it let go last week, along with a April 22 deadline to repay some of the $193 million it received from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program. 





Image via Fisker Karma

Most industry analysts say that the final straw was a lack of interest from two potential Chinese suitors in the car manufacturing sector— Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, with headquarters in Hangzhou; and Dongfeng Motor Group Co., based in Wuhan.

Fisker has not assembled any cars since last July, when Waltham, Massachusetts-based A123 Systems Inc., the company’s primary supplier of lithium-ion batteries, sought bankruptcy protection and was purchased by the Hangzhou, China-based automotive component manufacturer, Wanxiang Group Inc.  

Indeed, Fisker’s 210 employees were just finishing their first week back at work after being furloughed on March 22, when the cash-strapped company unceremoniously fired all but 53 of them on April 5. According to Automotive News—which interviewed several staff members who were carrying boxes full of personal belongings outside the Fisker headquarters at 8:30 a.m. on that date—said they were given no warning and no severance pay, other than compensation for unused vacation days.

Later that day, the California office of the employment law firm Outten & Golden filed a suit in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California, saying that Fisker had failed to comply with the terms of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act), as well as a comparable California law, which protect workers, their families, and communities by requiring most employers with 100 or more employees to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs. The suit is on behalf of former Fisker Chief Engineer Sven Etzelsberger and seeks class-action status to represent all of those dismissed suddenly.

According to Reuters (News - Alert), Outten & Golden won a $3.5 million settlement in a similar suit it filed against Solyndra, the government-funded solar panel manufacturer that collapsed and fell into bankruptcy in August of 2011—and became a poster child for the lapses of the DOE loan program.

Fisker’s remaining workforce, comprising senior managers and executives, will primarily be tasked with pursuing buyers for the company's assets. Fisker has faced many challenges over the past month, including the abrupt resignation in March of its founder, Henrik Fisker, supposedly in the wake of discord with top management.




Edited by Ashley Caputo


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