The founders of Anaheim luxury hybrid automaker Fisker Automotive Inc. testified before a congressional subcommittee last week, attempting to explain what went wrong with the troubled automaker.
Henrik Fisker, who shares a name with the automotive company he helped found with Bernhard Koehler in 2005, attempted to shed light on “what the company and I did right, what went wrong, and where factors beyond our control intervened” during his testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
At the center of the hearing was the $529 million Department of Energy loan the company received. Fisker Automotive drew down $192 million of that loan before it was suspended in 2011 after the company missed certain production and sales milestones on its first and only model, the Karma sedan.
Fisker Automotive missed its first payment on the loan due last week. DOE officials confirmed the department seized the automaker’s $21 million reserve account earlier this month, which is now being put toward repayment of the loan.
―Kari Hamanaka
