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tazzygirl -> RE: Car Company Gets U.S. Loan, Builds Cars In Finland (10/21/2011 11:26:00 PM)
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Sorry, I dont have enough information to make that determination.
I do know the company wasnt given EPA clearance to even sell the car until last week.
I do know they bought a plant.
I do know they are now producing in Finland.
My issue with the loan is for a car that costs $100,000. They took money, hard earned money, from the wallets of every worker to give to a company to build a car most of this country will never be able to afford.
What pisses me off is that if I were to go to the SBA to get a loan, I would have to prove I had the ability to repay the loan and the means to provide the product or service. Doesnt seem this effort was taken here.
What pisses me off even more is the lack of accountability to the people... what have they done with the money? Was it all spent in California? Or was it transferred by smoke and mirrors to Finland to buy and develop a plant there?
Who is our government is supposed to be overseeing this project? You cant honestly expect me to believe we gave out all that money and no one knows what happened to it. That will never wash with me.
A quick google revealed this.
But Energy Department spokesman Dan Leistikow said none of the U.S. loan money contributed to the production work in Finland.
"The Department's funding was only used for the U.S. operations," Energy Department spokesman Dan Leistikow wrote. "The money could not be, and was not, spent on overseas operations. The Karma also relies on an extensive network of hundreds of suppliers in more than a dozen U.S. states."
He said the first part of the loan, $169 million, supported engineering work at Fisker's U.S. facilities as the company "developed the tools, equipment and manufacturing processes for Fisker's first vehicle" -- though that work so far has not contributed to a production line in the U.S.
But Leistikow said the rest of the loan is still supporting U.S. production of another vehicle line called the Nina.
"Fisker is using this funding to bring a shuttered General Motors plant in Delaware back to life and employing more than 2,500 workers. Fisker was attracted to this site in part by the opportunity to rehire some of the trained, dedicated workers who lost their jobs when that plant closed," Leistikow said. The department later clarified that 120 workers have been hired at the site to date, with the rest set to be hired by early 2013.
For the Karma line, founder Henrik Fisker reportedly claimed the company could not find a manufacturer in the U.S. for the job. So the production went to Finnish company Valmet Automotive, along with 500 manufacturing jobs.
A company spokesman told FoxNews.com that Fisker had "explored the possibility of producing the Karma in the U.S."
"However, there are no contract manufacturers like Valmet in the U.S., and none of the established domestic automakers were willing to partner with Fisker to provide an manufacturing option in the U.S. that would work for the Karma program," the spokesman said.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/21/energy-department-defends-loan-to-company-building-electric-cars-in-finland/#ixzz1bUN4pxze
With a price tag of 45,000,its cheaper than the Karma. Perhaps we are better off building that one here.
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