Luxury Carmaker Fisker to Buy Idled GM Plant for Hybrid Production

California-based luxury carmaker Fisker Automotive on Wednesday announced the planned buyout of an idled General Motors assembly and production plant in Wilmington, Delaware following deals to make plug-in hybrid electric cars, a company official said on Tuesday.

According to documents, Fisker has sent a letter of intent to Motors Liquidation Co., formerly known as General Motors Corp, for the planned purchase of the said plant for the amount of $18 million. The deal came after more than four months of evaluation.

It was learned that the carmaker has acquired the approval of the government for a $528.7 million loan for it to develop plug-in for electric cars. The company said that will spend some $175 million for the refurbishment of the said facility that will enable it to go in full operations by 2012.

Dubbed as project NINA, the factory expected to employ some 2, 000 workers and more than 3, 000 vendors and suppliers of the new vehicle by 2014. The carmaker aims to produce some 75, 000 to more than 100, 000 electric cars each year.

Officials also claimed that it will be the largest exporting capacity for a local manufacturer with more than half of the production going to other countries.