Irvine-based Fisker Automotive Inc. has received an investment pledge from a battery maker that’s also set to become a supplier to the luxury hybrid automaker.
Watertown, Mass.-based A123 Systems Inc. is set to invest up to $23 million in Fisker, including $13 million in cash.
A123 also signed a multiyear deal to supply batteries for Fisker’s Karma sedan, which runs off a combination gasoline and rechargeable battery engine developed with Irvine-based Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc.
Karma is expected to debut later this year and cost about $90,000.
A123 also is expected to supply batteries for Fisker’s Nina, a sedan geared toward families that’s set to sell for about $48,000.
A123, which went public last year and had a recent market value of $2 billion, plans to expand a Michigan plant to make batteries for Fisker.
The deal with Fisker appears to have ended a 2009 pact with the automaker and New York-based Ener1 Inc., which said it no longer would be supplying batteries to Fisker.
Fisker has raised about $200 million in private financing, including from Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
In September, Fisker received approval for $528.7 million in federal loans to develop its cars that run off a combination electric and gas engine.
