Fisker Automotive: New Plug-in Hybrid Maker

Date posted: 09-05-2007

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IRVINE, Calif. — Betting that they can beat bureaucracy-burdened major automakers to market with today's hottest new green-car technology, a pair of Southern California automotive firms will announce plans today for a new, American-made plug-in hybrid car to go on sale by 2010.

The companies, Fisker Coachbuild LLC and Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, both located in Irvine, will form a joint venture to design, build and market the car, said spokeswoman Cristina Cheever. The new company will be called Fisker Automotive.

Its plug-in hybrid will team an internal combustion engine and a battery-based electric drive system that can be recharged from the commercial grid via common 110-volt household current.

Details and performance figures, including range on all-electric drive, are being kept under wraps, but Cheever said the new vehicles would handily outperform the 8-mile all-electric range Toyota is promising for its next-generation Prius plug-in hybrid, a 2009 model.

General Motors has said it will bring an extended-range Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, with 40 miles of all-electric range, to market by 2010 and will sell it for under $30,000. Ford also has shown a concept plug-in hybrid but has not said when, or whether, it will build the vehicle.

Design and technology development for the Fisker plug-in are underway and a working preproduction prototype will be unveiled in January at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, Cheever said.

The car, to be designed by Fisker Coachbuild, would sell for under $100,000 and plans call for initial annual production of 15,000 vehicles, Cheever said.

Fisker Automotive will contract with an existing private manufacturer to build its cars, she said.

Henrik Fisker, the former BMW and Aston Martin designer and chairman of Fisker Coachbuild, will head Fisker Automotive's management team.

Privately owned Fisker Coachbuild designs and installs new coachwork and interiors for high-end BMW and Mercedes-Benz models, creating rebodied exotics in the manner of the custom coachbuilders of the early 1900s who created new sheet metal for all types of luxury cars including Bugattis, Cadillacs and Rolls-Royces. The company won't release sales data but says it has delivered 13 of its Tramonto convertibles and Latigo coupes (based, respectively, on the Mercedes-Benz SL and BMW 6 Series.)

Quantum, which owns several chassis-building companies and specializes in clean propulsion and fuel and energy storage technologies, is developing the plug-in power plant and drive system for the Fisker. The company has built plug-in hybrid conversions of the Ford Escape Hybrid for the Southern California Air Quality Management District.

What this means to you: If you've got the bucks, you could be zooming by decade's end in an earth-friendly exotic car with substantial all-electric range while your neighbor is still putting along in a Prius.