Fisker has halted work at the former General Motors plant in Delaware, where it plans to build Project Nina, its plug-in hybrid family car, laying off 26 workers there and axing a further 40 contract (temporary) employees from its California headquarters.
The company said it had delayed work at the plant pending further discussions with the Department of Energy regarding funding for the Project Nina programme.
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The department is withholding loans for the project because Fisker missed deadlines putting its first vehicle, the Karma sports car, on sale.
Deliveries started in December, some three months behind schedule. The company has so far delivered 250 of the US$103,000 hybrids.
Fisker said that it still plans to launch the Nina in 2013 but the date could be pushed back because of the latest funding problems.
The company has received US$193m of a US$529m loan, most of which was spent on Karma development. It is now renegotiating the terms for the US$336m balance, money earmarked for Nina.
Fisker, is backed by venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Palo Alto Investors and the Qatar Investment Authority. It currently has a workforce of 600 people.
The US$528.7m low-interest loan was provided by the DoE from a US$25bn programme established in 2008 to fund development of alternative fuel vehicles as well as meet US fuel efficiency standards.
The Delaware plant – first opened in 1947 – was acquired in October 2009 from GM which last used it to assemble the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky sports car twins. The state of Michigan also agreed a US$9m grant to help Fisker pay utility bills while it restarted the idled GM plant. About half of that grant has been used to date.
The Nina sedan, which is expectd to sell for around $47,400, was intended to go into production from next year and reach an annual volume of 100,000 vehicles.
The Karma is built by Valmet Automotive in Finland but qualified for the energy department loan because 65% of its components are sourced from US suppliers.
