Industry News: Fisker: Can Someone Loan Us $150 Million?

[William Maley]

William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

August 16, 2012

Fisker is looking to raise another $150 million to help keep the company afloat.

"We need money on our balance sheet" to fund operating expenses. "And we need money to fund the development of the next car," said Ray Lane, a Fisker director and a managing partner at venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to Reuters."We're raising some of that money now, and some later."

The reason for the extra $150 million? Earlier this year, Fisker's request for $264.5 million in government was denied by U.S. Department of Energy. Couple that with development costs of the new Atlantic and production costs of the Karma and easy to see why they're asking for money.

Source: Reuters

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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[loki]

of all the the subsidies the gov has paid.... why not this, but yes to solyndra...and this is CHEAPER!!! ugh.

[Guest Guest]

I miss the days when I could just read and discuss cars without having to read about the fricking government this, and Obama that.

I know Fisker was uber ambitious, but considering the obstacles they've faced, they're really not doing as poorly as the so-called press would have you believe. I wish them well.

[Drew Dowdell]

150 million is nothing in the grand scheme of an automotive company. Toyota spent more than that dealing with sticky gas pedals.

[ocnblu]

Let 'em die!

[regfootball]

I'll second that, mr. Ocn.

[Drew Dowdell]

I'm disappointed that any of the long timers here would wish a domestic car company, especially one with attractive and interesting designs, close up shop REGARDLESS of how they are powered.

Don't like the power train? Don't buy one... but don't wish them dead and then complain that GM only sells FWD, 4-cylinder, 4-door jellybeans.

[regfootball]

fold em into GM. they buy their steering wheel controls from em anyways.

[yougojay]

Toyota spent approx. 1 billion to fix the pedals, up to 2 billion loss if you include "future product damage' according to something I read at Forbes...so in the 'grand scheme of things' 150 mil. doesn't sound like that much (scary, I know - ) BUT, it's the 'help keep the company afloat' part that gets me.

The economy sucks for jobs - people can't find work - people have lost their homes - so, right now, people are tired of hearing all the huge dollar amounts & carefree spending practices.

I do hope they can find enough rich people to make their company profitable, because that is what it will take.

[Drew Dowdell]

uh... a good chunk $150 million goes to worker (both blue and white collar) salaries....

[Robert Hall]

I hope they can stay afloat...the Karma is a thing of beauty.

[Drew Dowdell]

The Atlantic would be an awesome entry to compete with upper 3-series and lower 5-series.

[A Horse With No Name]

I hope they can stay afloat...the Karma is a thing of beauty.

I agree....it is Sweet!

The Atlantic would be an awesome entry to compete with upper 3-series and lower 5-series.

And BMW needs the competition, IMHO they are loosing their edge....

[regfootball]

uh... a good chunk $150 million goes to worker (both blue and white collar) salaries....

how much for the new CEO?

I suppose some of the 150M is needed for the fire truck to put out fires.

Edited August 17, 2012 by regfootball

[FAPTurbo]

So you can give a promising American company 150 million dollars which is a drop in the bucket.

Or you can let them get bought out/funded by China, taking your intellectual capital and engineering expertise along with local jobs back across the Pacific.

Your choice, America.

Durr hurr hurr! Herpity derpity derp!

Nevermind, America's made its mind up.

[Drew Dowdell]

I'll say it again, $150m is a rounding error for most things automotive and governmental.

In fact, the value of GM stock that the U.S. Government owns increased $1.6b over the past 5 days. So Fisker is asking for less than 1/10th of just this week's increase in government owned GM stock value.

[Z-06]

If I had money, I would invest in Fisker and take the management out. I think the coach building exercise does not help to build cars. Also I would fix the PR malaise.

[A Horse With No Name]

If I had money, I would invest in Fisker and take the management out. I think the coach building exercise does not help to build cars. Also I would fix the PR malaise.

I agree....

[ocnblu]

We'll see.

[loki]

I miss the days when I could just read and discuss cars without having to read about the fricking government this, and Obama that.

are you commenting on my post, or the OP?

isn't gov intervention GREAT?! i mean, chry co wouldn't "exist" because of the 80's, and now GM wouldn't "exist" cause of a few years ago, the automotive world would be pushed back to the days of no crash testing, parts would fall of cars willy nilly, Leaded gasoline would foul our air, water, and food.... ../s

[A Horse With No Name]

Loki, let's go racing bud...

Rallycross is like autocross, only on dirt. Since you obviously believe that the government should fund nothing.....your Monte Carlo should be set up perfectly to run in a dirt field and nowhere else. After all, driving on a government funded interstate with that car would be hypocritical....

So let's let em rip...when the green flag drops, the bull crap stops....

[loki]

Horse, it's not really the funding part, it's how they get the money, and if they have the authority to do that.

if the feds had the authority to build the interstate, why didn't that happen during the depression instead of after ww2? if interstates are such a good idea for gov to build, why did the first part of what became the autobahn get built by private funding?

what's the car that was on top gear that they replaced w/ a BMW when it's supposed to run on a dirt road inside of an animal race track, and the driver gets beat to hell, because of how it's designed to drive on pavement.

but you're dragging us away from talking about if fisker can/should get $150M to continue their venture in producing sexy, expensive, niche cars.................... to extend our reliance on ... what, mostly coal by % of electricity produced nation wide currently

[Drew Dowdell]

Each iteration of these new tech cars brings the price down a notch. The Atlantic is $30k less expensive than the Karma. We gave how many billion to the banks for them to survive? I think we can spare $150 million for a innovative, US Technology company to make payroll while they get on their feet.

They've committed to building cars here, there are certainly worse investments to be made with the money.

[A Horse With No Name]

I really hope they succeed....

And BMW's can run on dirt. Lots of them ran as rally cars in various levels of European rally, E30 and E36 Chassis BMW"s are common at Rally cross type events and in US road rally events...

[loki]

Each iteration of these new tech cars brings the price down a notch. The Atlantic is $30k less expensive than the Karma. We gave how many billion to the banks for them to survive? I think we can spare $150 million for a innovative, US Technology company to make payroll while they get on their feet.

They've committed to building cars here, there are certainly worse investments to be made with the money.

Only if you think the gov is supposed to be an investor, ....and where is that clause for that power in the Law? general welfare doesn't cover it cause it's not in the powers of any branch. the preamble only provides direction, not any powers.

[Drew Dowdell]

Yea, there is only about 200 years of legal precedent for the Government doing investing.

[A Horse With No Name]

Yea, there is only about 200 years of legal precedent for the Government doing investing.

Perhaps we should tear up the rails on our cross country railroad network?

I don't want to get political, but in my mind it's how you define "freedom" that is an issue here. My sons friend is very free, he is not obligated to a job (unemployed) and has no car no car payments, and no car insurance.

However, I am obligated to go to work tomorrow morning, make my car payment on my car, and pay my auto insurance. And yet ai have the freedom to drive anywhere in our country, go out to eat at any restaurant I want to, and pay to live in a nice 4 bedroom house. But there is a price in my freedom....getting up at 5:30 ayem tomorrow morning.

As a country, we can choose to be free of any technology development, any subsidies, any environmental laws, et al....but look at how polluted a lot of the world is, or how behind educationally a lot of the world is, etc. To say that subsides take away a form of our freedom is correct, but they bring other freedoms and other benefits.

Personally, I rather like the thought of living in a developed, high tech country rather than a backwards, uneducated, polluted one, so...I'll gladly dump a bunch more cash into Fisker Karma.

Besides, look at the founding fathers, who wanted us to be interdependent. I think Jefferson and Madison, who wanted us to be an agrarian nation of independent farms and not dependent on Europe for anything would probably turn in their graves if they knew how dependent we were on foreign oil. Madison also wrote of the need to be environmentally responsible 200 years before the environmental movement of the current times.

It just slays me how some groups think they understand the founding fathers when they pick and choose passages from their writing, jsut like they pick and choose passages from the bible.

How many modern libertarian Christians who are strong Bible believers eat seafood? Isn't eating shellfish an abomination in the bible? and how many of them eat Pork hot dogs...isn't eating pork an abomination in the sacred scriptures?

The biggest issue here is that people are afraid of change, and yet change is always coming. It's one reason I have more respect for Buddhism than Christianity in some ways...Buddhism seems to embrace uncertainty and change as being part of the dynamic nature of life and the planet we live on, where modern Christianity and modern Americans seem to fear change at every turn.

I find it pathetic that in my lifetime we have gone from being a nation that put a man on the moon to a nation of conformists that is afraid of its own shadow.

[A Horse With No Name]

...and that, not government funding or battery range is the problem with the Fisker-Karma. It is unique, positive, creative change and people are threatened by it.

This explains why we have gone from being a nation that drove inspiring, ballsey cars like the 65 Impala SS or the first gen Toranado, to a nation that debates with anxiety buying a 4 cyl Camary...beige or silver...omg....too much stress...better go with silver for resale...ugh....

So perhaps the best thing is to move Fisker Karma production to Canada, Australia, Canada, France, Switzerland, Germany or the like. Somewhere people are not bound by idiotic fear of the future and idiotic fear of their own shadow.

[loki]

those ballsy cars are the ones that were powered by leaded gasoline, back when we landed on the moon, back when the civil rights movement was still looked down upon by many in this country, where you couldn't go to any restaurant you wanted. when being old world christian(catholic) didn't keep someone from being the first president to be one. when you could pollute rivers with trash on the city level and not raise many eyebrows(polluting federal property). ...of a time of brenton woods monetary policy (partial gold standard).

You are complaining about the culture now, and wishing for products/culture of the past, right? so where's the source of this difference? is it grassroots based, or is it top down differences?

you are more free than your son's friend in some ways, you can't get in trouble for buying beer or cigarettes. because you agreed to certain contracts you have a job, you have a house, you have the payments for those (house and car). your son's friend prolly doesn't have the capabilities to take on such debt and responsibilities like you can.

you speak of jefferson, he knew how much trade with other nations was productive for each, like the tobacco trade that France had a stranglehold on(inside the country) through their trade policy that was still very mercantilistic.

200 years of legal precedent... that's a very dangerous simple explanation. that only gives reason to not change it, like slavery... or the death penalty, or many other controversial subjects.

but for rail development, the huge push early in our history was for war, so in someways we are keeping alive that memory, not just in history books, not just in reenactments, but in policy. i can find out a name of a rail company that succeeded w/o gov help, not sure of it's status now(w/o research) but saying that only gov can succeed(or subsidize) in these ventures, is just childish.

Edited August 19, 2012 by loki

[Drew Dowdell]

No rail company succeeded without help from the government. Not one.

[loki]

maybe the oil embargo was one of the "big hits" of why we are where we are.... brenton woods failing,, viet nam

sky lab failing, challenger,

we have lost that invincible spirit, hopefulyl for the better, though it hasn't changed in our military policy, though i wish reality would catch up there.

[loki]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J._Hill

[Drew Dowdell]

ONE PART of the railroad was done without land grants, there is much more to the history of the Great Northern than the Trans Con. That doesn't mean they never had government help.

[ocnblu]

Fear Fisker?

[loki]

ONE PART of the railroad was done without land grants, there is much more to the history of the Great Northern than the Trans Con. That doesn't mean they never had government help.

land grants, meaning from the gov? why does the federal gov have land inside states(or out)? the louisiana purchase was made w/o legality, it was just "in the best interest". so i say, where's the law that allows the US gov to own land outside of the states in the union?

Edited August 19, 2012 by loki

[ZL-1]

I find it pathetic that in my lifetime we have gone from being a nation that put a man on the moon to a nation of conformists that is afraid of its own shadow.

Me too; and it's not only the US but most of the Western World that has become like that. I think the leadership/elite has become so weak in quality that fear and conformity is the only social control tools they know how to use.

[A Horse With No Name]

ZL-1...you and I are on the same page, bud....