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Live transcript from the Boxwood Automotive Plant, Delaware. Vice President Joe Biden and Fisker Automotive CEO Henrik Fisker speak.

10:37  Introductions, including Vice President Biden and Henrik Fisker.

10:40 First Speaker, Car Czar Ed Montgomery. He gets his largest applause when he says “This plant will allow us to export electric cars to other countries.”

10:43 Next Speaker, Rep. Mike Castle- He thanks Mr. Fisker for his company’s diligence in selecting the Boxwood plant.

10:48 Sen. Ted Kaufman- Miss quotes Jerry Maguire by asking “Where’s the Money?”, He’s proud to see that Delaware is leading the way for more green jobs in the US.

10:50 Sen. Tom Carper- “Hands that built Pontiac Solstice can build Ninas.”

10:59 Gov. Jack Markell- He says, “I can think of no better partner to reopen this plant than Fisker Automotive. ” There is still a lot more work to be done in order to bring the potential of Fisker Automotive into successful reality. He presents a gift to Henrik Fisker and Barney Koehler, a jacket with the UAW logo and Fisker logo on it.

11:11 Henrik Fisker, CEO Fisker Automotive- He starts by giving an overview of Fisker Automotive. ‘We have always planned to use the development of the Fisker Karma to bring down the price of the drivetrain for Project Nina.” Originally this was going to start in another 3 years, thanks to the loan this project starts today. ‘We plan to export at least 50% of the cars manufactured in this plant.”  Fisker choose this plant for several reasons. First, the skilled workers in the area. Second, the amazing reception they received from the governor and the other state officials. They really showed that they wanted Fisker to work with them. Delaware showed that they could do business in a fast and efficient way. Third, the plant has great facilities from the assembly line to the paint shop and more.

11:20 Dave Meyers, UAW- Thanks several people and then introduces “Our Joe.”

11:22 Vice President Joe Biden- He talks about the plant closing and how hard that was on the community and the individual workers and their families. The doubters were wrong about our ability to manufacture cars for the world. “I believe we can lead the world in automobile manufacturing for the next century.” “It’s a bad bet to bet against America!” The cars that we build here are truly going to be the cars of the future. Biden then goes on to mention his favorite quote from Henrik Fisker, “It’s not enough to build an electric car, it’s got to have muscle and it’s got to have looks.” From investments in battery technology to charging stations we are placing a bet on the future.  “Today’s announcement is the first sign that this bet is starting to pay off.”

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New Home to Project Nina?

Admittedly we were curious as well why there was so much press about an announcement that might be happening sometime in the future. Seems like Nick Chambers over at Gas2.0 has put all the pieces together.

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 anti fungal 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.

Well done Nick! After hearing that NUMMI was to large and that the Delaware plant had recently been visited by several new car manufacturers… things all started to fall into place. The Vice President’s speech is just the type of catalyst needed to warrant the announcement of an announcement.

[Source:Gas 2.0]

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Fisker Automotive CEO Henrik Fisker is a noted car designer. And now he’s trying his hand at running the whole show: his company plans to bring the plug-in blood pressure hybrid Karma to the market next June.

Additional information can be found in this companion article.

[Source:AutoWeek]

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There are a couple new items that have come out of the speech. However, most of it is just confirmation of information and a continued commitment to the consistent messages we have all come to know.  It does sound like there have been a couple of new dealers added to the network.

We have selected 45 premium retailers in the U.S. market to sell this vehicle. Our dealers all own multiple dealerships.

More about this soon.

As for the consistent message:

Our Karma, we hope will take about 3% of the plug-in hybrid market. Our car will be delivered starting next June. We have pre-sold 1,500 cars so far. Our customers come from premium brands mainly — 60%. Mainly BMW and Mercedes. 3% are former Prius owners.

No surprises here, but always good to hear the message valium reinforced.

He did talk a bit about Project Nina.

Goal will be to manufacture 100,000 vehicles per year. We plan to export more than 50% of these vehicles. This will leverage 62% of the design and engineering of the initial Karma K1 platform.

All the work that has gone into the Karma should really pay off with the development of Nina.

We are starting with a $80,000 car, going down to a $40,000 model, but hopefully we will go down more than that in the future eventually. We hope to become a large and significant player in the world as we build a brand that is a pure green brand.

What a great mantra for the New American Car Company.

[Source:  PaulAllen.net Picture: CarandDriver.com]

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Here is the first image of a high voltage home charging unit prototype. We first noticed the unit mentioned in a press release about a month ago. However, until now never got a chance to see an actual picture.

Russell Datz from Fisker Automotive says:

“The unit will be available to Karma buyers as an option – price to be determined, but nothing outrageous. It will enable US owners to charge their Karmas in about 6 hours. A full 50 mile other charge costs about $2 based on a US average electric rate of $0.10/kWh.”

Most of the time the car will not require a full charge so to top off it off will take much less time.

The unit is manufactured by Lear Corporation based in Southfield, MI. They are also working on parts and charging units for the Chevrolet Volt, as well as hybrid models from BMW, Land Rover and Renault.

[Source: Fisker Automotive; Lear Corporation]

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