Last week, Fisker Automotive co-founder and CEO, Henrik Fisker, said that his company would very shortly be announcing where project Nina—the company’s upcoming $48,000 plug-in hybrid—would be built. The statement led to all sorts of rumors, but speculation had been growing that the chosen manufacturing spot was a closed GM plant in Delaware.
At the time it seemed like the statement got way more coverage and attention than it deserved. It’s like me saying “I’m going to tell you soon when I’ll be writing about Fisker’s announcement”—it means nothing. The real news is when I write about Fisker’s announcement, not about when I write about the announcement of the upcoming announcement.
So I ignored the news.
But now it all becomes clear why there was this air of mystery about the announcement and why Fisker thought it was important to “announce the announcement”—so to speak.
Tomorrow, Vice President Joe Biden will visit a closed GM plant in Delaware—his home state—to make a “major announcement” about the closed plant’s future. Clearly the Fisker announcement and Joe Biden’s visit hold more than a passing coincidental relation. And, following suit, reports circulating around the internet strongly suggest that the closed plant will reopen as the manufacturing site of Fisker’s upcoming project Nina—set to reach the market in 2012.
I’m still not sure why the announcement is big enough news that our Vice President has to make it, but I guess Fisker has some big political friends (and they did recently get half a BILLION dollars in stimulus funds). Anyway, it’s a marketing coup—one that surely will not go unnoticed by Fisker’s main competitor, Tesla Motors.
Source: Reuters
Image Credit: Fisker Automotive
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Nick,
This news is a mental quandary. Should I be happy that alternative vehicle manufacturers now have high-powered political access? Or should I worry that this could mean political favoring of alternative vehicles priced out of reach for almost everybody?
Nick,
This news is a mental quandary. Should I be happy that alternative vehicle manufacturers now have high-powered political access? Or should I worry that this could mean political favoring of alternative vehicles priced out of reach for almost everybody?
Carbon my friend,
The environmental/energy security road is fraught with double edged swords.
So this is how you get major stimulus funds, have a former Vice President on your board and put the factory in the current Vice President’s home state.
So this is how you get major stimulus funds, have a former Vice President on your board and put the factory in the current Vice President’s home state.
Biden is from Delaware, explaining why he would go there to make an announcement like this. It looks good for his home state, looks good for Obama, and looks good for the Democrat currently running for re-election in that district.
Great guess work and sleuthing, though! I see the official announcement on this has been made now too.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102603011.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Biden is from Delaware, explaining why he would go there to make an announcement like this. It looks good for his home state, looks good for Obama, and looks good for the Democrat currently running for re-election in that district.
Great guess work and sleuthing, though! I see the official announcement on this has been made now too.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102603011.html?hpid=moreheadlines
We need more competitors and small and cheap plug-in vehicles. Gasoline vehicles must be banned soon . Regards.
We need more competitors and small and cheap plug-in vehicles. Gasoline vehicles must be banned soon . Regards.
Nick, our author friend, you said, “Carbon my friend.”
Perhaps you have not yet gotten the word. Methane is over 40 times worse as a cause of heating the globe, which in any case according to the UN body responsible for measuring global warming, has NOT warmed since 1998, than Carbon dioxide.
Nick, our author friend, you said, “Carbon my friend.”
Perhaps you have not yet gotten the word. Methane is over 40 times worse as a cause of heating the globe, which in any case according to the UN body responsible for measuring global warming, has NOT warmed since 1998, than Carbon dioxide.
From the outside of this development (where I am), this seems like a great idea…and it even follows Reduce, Reuse, Recycle by….reducing the production of poor quality ICE cars, reusing an old plant and an existing workforce that needs work, and recycling the equipment.
It is curious that it just so happens that Fisker and GM have the two leading series hybrid cars on the market. I just hope that this deal doesn’t end up with GM buying Fisker down the road…I don’t trust GM with innovation.
From the outside of this development (where I am), this seems like a great idea…and it even follows Reduce, Reuse, Recycle by….reducing the production of poor quality ICE cars, reusing an old plant and an existing workforce that needs work, and recycling the equipment.
It is curious that it just so happens that Fisker and GM have the two leading series hybrid cars on the market. I just hope that this deal doesn’t end up with GM buying Fisker down the road…I don’t trust GM with innovation.
ChuckL,
I’m really not sure what your point is, but based on your past comments on this blog I’m assuming you’re trying to be witty and insult me while at the same time plead your case that global warming is a hoax.
But, yet again, you suffer from foot-in-mouth disease. Carbon Buildup is the screen name of an ACTUAL friend of mine in real life that I’ve known for years who frequently leaves comments.
So, when I said “Carbon, my friend” I actually meant it. Unlike you, who, rather unsuccessfully, used it to try and put me down.
If you are indeed trying to say something denying global warming, I learned long ago not to even try and enter the global warming argument with deniers–it’s like trying to win a rational argument with fundamentalists of any creed. Besides, I don’t need to win that argument any more, it’s already won and the deniers are in the fringe.