Fisker Plant Announced in Delaware

News broke just yesterday about the possibility of a Fisker plant at General Motors' Wilmington, Delaware facility where the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky roadsters were produced. Now it's official, as the announcement was made today!

Fisker executives made the announcement onsite, along with Vice President Joe Biden, Delaware Governor's Jack Markell and other state officials. The plant being reopened is welcome news to the many that lost their jobs in the recent plant closure.

Fisker intends to purchase the dormant company from the Motors Liquidation Company (MLC), the part of General Motors that still remains in bankruptcy, for a paltry sum of $18 million.

The plant is being purchased for the production Fisker's low-cost Project NINA. The company recently secured a $528.7 million dollar loan from the Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing loan program (ATVM). That loan makes Project NINA (and the purchase of this plant) possible.

The program has turned out much differently than many expected, with large loans going to startups Tesla, Fisker and even foreign automakers like Nissan for it's electric vehicle programs.

Production at the plant is scheduled to begin in late 2012, employing 2,000 factory workers and 3,000 vendor and supplier jobs while producing 75-100,000 vehicles per year. Plans are for half that number to be exported, something that will help with trade imbalances.

The Wilmington Assembly plant was "selected for its size, production capacity, world-class paint facilities, access to shipping ports, rail lines and available skilled workforce." In reality, while the plant makes complete sense, I see there being some political involvement to coincide with the recent loan.

Especially considering the fact that the workforce at the plan will continued to be unionized by the United Auto Workers union (UAW). That's fine with me though if it works for Fisker. We're witnessing the creation of a full-fledged new America automaker. I wish them all the best!