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Fisker Looking to Make Cars for Others at Plant

Irvine-based luxury hybrid automaker Fisker Automotive Inc. is looking to use its recently acquired Delaware plant to produce vehicles for other automakers.

Fisker, which starts production on its flagship Karma sports sedan this week in Finland, hopes extra space at the 3.2 million-square-foot Wilmington Assembly plant will provide added revenue.

The company expects to use about 40% of the plant to produce the Karma as well as a lower-cost plug-in dubbed Project Nina and another model Fisker is mum on for now.

“There’s extra capacity in that plant,” Fisker spokesman Roger Ormisher said. “So we’re looking at the moment.”

No deals have been signed, according to Ormisher.

The plant, purchased last year for $20 million through General Motors Corp.’s bankruptcy proceedings, is set to begin production on the Nina in late 2012.

Company officials expect to make 100,000 cars there annually at full production.

Big Year

2011 is shaping up to be a big year for Fisker as it rolls out its first car and preps for a new headquarters in Anaheim.

Some 3,000 orders for the Karma are on backlog. The first cars off the assembly line are set to be shipped in June to about 40 dealers in the U.S. and Europe in a simultaneous launch, officials said.

Irvine-based Shelly Automotive Group is among them.

The Karma starts at about $96,000.

Fisker cofounder and Chief Operating Officer Bernhard Koehler earlier this month told a European automotive publication the company hopes to sell 7,000 cars in 2011 and 15,000 in 2012.

That’s a revenue projection of about $670 million this year and $1.4 billion next year.

Fisker is among the county’s most watched startups. Many see the company as the top local prospect for an initial public offering this year.

• Opened: 1947

• Where: Wilmington, Del.

• Space: 3.2 million square feet

• Past life: GM plant

• Closed: 2009

• Once produced: Saturns, Pontiacs

• Acquired: by Fisker for $20 million in 2010

• Expected output: 100,000 cars at full production

The automaker has raised about $470 million from private investors and $528.7 million in low-interest loans from the Energy Department to develop its luxury cars powered by rechargeable batteries with backup gas engines.

Fisker plans to heavily market its vehicles in Asia as well, starting next month at the Shanghai Auto Show where the Karma will be introduced in China.

The company has signed a distribution deal there and expects sales in Asia to account for about 20% of its revenue, with the U.S and Europe accounting for 40% each, according to Fisker officials.

The initial 3,000 orders for the Karma are expected to be shipped to customers by September. Full production of about 1,500 units a month is projected by October.

“Some of these customers have been waiting two years for these cars,” Ormisher said.

To meet production goals, Fisker steadily has increased employment in the last year and ramped up operations.

The automaker has about 150 local employees with plans to double in size this year. That prompted the company to expand from 50,000 square feet in three Irvine buildings to a much larger location in Anaheim.

The Business Journal in January reported Fisker signed a 10-year lease for a 156,135-square-foot office building on East La Palma Avenue, near the Riverside (91) Freeway and Imperial (90) Highway.

Fisker plans to move its headquarters there in April.

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