What kind of company devises a multi-million dollar business model and manufacturing strategy based on a single component that’s supplied by a single vendor?
“Anaheim-based Fisker Automotive has stopped production of its first car, the $100,000 Karma, because the automaker has run low on batteries for the hybrid electric vehicle, the company said Thursday.” per yesterday’s Register: Fisker halts Karma production. With the bankruptcy of A123 Systems, Fisker’s only battery supplier (unlike a gasoline/electric hybrid vehicle like a Toyota Prius or Ford Focus, the Karma runs only off electricity charged from the utility grid), the company’s now dead in the water and conserving its remaining battery inventory to replace those that have been recalled due to vehicle fires.
Like Solyndra, both Fisker and Massachusetts-based A123 are heavily indebted to the Feds for loans they
Auto Tycoon and Obama Pal Henrik Fisker
could not have obtained in the private sector due to their narrow potential markets and high risk of the ventures. As well, the Obama Administration’s obsession with unproven, badly designed, unjustifiable green technology made the massive loans a reality and legitimatized the two companies in a competitive private market where they could not possibly survive without the government behind them.
Per USA Today, “Fisker, an Orange County, Calif., based startup automaker, was founded by Henrik Fisker, an auto designer. He hosted a swank party at the home of television personality Lisa Ling on Wednesday night in Santa Monica, Calif., as part of the [LA] auto show.”
Mr. Fisker’s appalling lack of business sense will be on full display when he speaks (for a fee) to the OC’s self-appointed Chamber of Commerce, Lucy Dunn’s Orange County Business Council on December 12th.