Irvine-based hybrid automaker Fisker Automotive Inc. has closed its latest equity financing round at $189 million, a major step toward meeting requirements for government-backed loans.
The latest financing brings the automaker’s total private investment to more than $300 million.
Fisker is developing a luxury sedan, the Karma, and a sports car, the Sunset, which run off a combination gas and battery engine developed with Irvine-based Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc.
Fisker has raised about $200 million in private financing, including from Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
The latest funding was $35 million committed by unnamed investors last week, closing a $189 million round.
Other Fisker investors include Watertown, Mass.-based A123 Systems Inc., which invested up to $23 million, including $13 million in cash.
A123 also signed a multiyear deal to supply batteries for Fisker’s vehicles.
The financing comes after the government finalized an agreement for $528.7 million in low-interest loans under the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program.
The loans are part of a $25 billion fund approved by Congress in 2007 to spur automakers to build electric and fuel-efficient autos.
The government loans only cover 80% of project costs, which meant Fisker has had to come up with money on its own before it could tap government loans.
Fisker plans to use its federal loan and recent funding to advance the Karma and to develop a lower-cost plug-in hybrid the company is calling Project Nina.
Project Nina is expected to be built in Wilmington, Del., at a former General Motors Co. assembly plant starting in 2012.
General Motors shut down production at its 3.2 million-square-foot Boxwood Road assembly plant last July.
Fisker plans to spend about $18 million to buy the plant and then spend an additional $175 million to retool it for the hybrid sedan.
