Fisker Automotive - Manufacturing

Manufacturing

Fisker Automotive retains core competencies in-house such as design and marketing, but outsources all manufacturing of the car and power train, heavily leveraging the resources of suppliers, with substantial savings resulting. Fisker's outsourcing methods have allowed the company in a 2–3 year period of development instead of the typical 5 years and at a cost of $333 million instead of $1 billion, and claims that it can make a profit from selling just 15,000 cars. Fisker saves significant development costs by using pre-engineered components developed by other car companies whenever possible, such as the door handle mechanism which is a General Motors part, Fisker Automotive just pays a fee to GM for each door handle in the Karma, which is much cheaper than designing its own door handles. However, the A123 battery failure and its resulting recall, and the eventual bankruptcy of the battery supplier, has led to significant problems and added cost to the manufacture of the Karma model.

In 2008 Fisker estimated 15,000 cars per year will be assembled by Valmet Automotive in Uusikaupunki, Finland. Manufacturing eventually commenced in 2011 but by the third quarter of 2012 production ceased and Valmet laid off half its workforce.

On October 27, 2009, Fisker officials announced that the company had signed a letter of intent to take control of the Boxwood Road Plant (previously owned and operated by General Motors as Wilmington Assembly) in Wilmington, Delaware:

Production is scheduled to begin in late 2012. Fisker Automotive anticipates Project NINA will ultimately create or support 2,000 factory jobs and more than 3,000 vendor and supplier jobs by 2014, as production ramps up to full capacity of 75,000-100,000 vehicles per year. More than half will be exported, the largest percentage of any domestic manufacturer.

Vice President Joe Biden attended the announcement. In addition to a purchase price of $20 million, Fisker expects to invest $175 million re-tooling the plant. The Government of Delaware provided $21 million in funding for the plant. Fisker later suspended development of the Wilmington plant as a result of a freeze on its federal loan and suggested that production might shift elsewhere unless its funding is restored.