**Written by Doug Powers Fisker Automotive, which was granted a $529 million US Dept. of Energy loan guarantee and then announced they would assemble the first line of cars in Finland , has announced layoffs at a Delaware plant that has yet to produce a single car: The company says 26 Fisker employees have been let go from the Delaware factory where renowned automotive engineer Henrik Fisker promised to one day begin producing affordable electric sedans. A Delaware newspaper also reported that subcontractors working on the car venture have been let go. “It’s temporary,” said Roger Ormisher, a company spokesman. “We’re being prudent and sensible as a company.” Because the initial phase sounds like it’s been such an unqualified success, the company is asking for terms of the federal loan to be altered so the company can have faster access to their line of time-released taxpayer-backed credit: Accompanying the layoffs was an announcement that Fisker has approached the Department of Energy about revising the targets it had to meet in order to continue drawing money from the federal loan. Whether the Energy Department agrees to alter the terms, and invest more taxpayer [money] in the Fisker venture remains unclear. To date, Fisker has received $193 million in government funds, according to a company statement. Back in October, the company acknowledged outsourcing Karma assembly to Finland, but said that the bulk of its government funds would be used to launch a second-generation electric vehicle, still under wraps, that would be assembled in a shuttered General Motors plant in Delaware. Some of those hired to prepare the Delaware plant for that effort were among those let go. “We have temporarily delayed work at the plant based on ongoing discussions with the DOE regarding funding for the Project Nina program,” the company’s statement said. “As a result, we have laid off 26 people.” This all sounds too familiar, doesn’t it? But since Leo DiCaprio, Al Gore and Colin Powell must not be denied warranty coverage , it’s important for the DoE to help keep Fisker afloat. Related madness: Obama’s green robber barons Eleven other Solyndras Stimulus-backed “green” bankruptcy of the week: Ener1 **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Fisker Auto Announces Layoffs; Requests Expedited Access to Full Dept. of Energy Loan Guarantee
Reuters – General Motors Co regained its title as the world’s top-selling automaker in 2011, less than three years after its 2009 taxpayer-funded bankruptcy under the Obama administration.
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GM regains crown as world’s top-selling automaker
(Reuters)
**Written by Doug Powers Maybe it’s not as bad as it sounds. Technically a “call back” is a notch below a recall, and it only affects 8,000 vehicles — which is a mere, um, 100% of all Volts sold in 2011. Lucky sales didn’t catch fire or the fixes would have been a more massive undertaking : General Motors plans to ask Volt owners to bring their electric cars into dealers to strengthen the structure around the batteries. The automaker said Thursday it plans enhancements to the vehicle’s structure and battery coolant system to further protect the battery from the possibility of an electrical fire occurring days or weeks after a severe crash. The enhancements come in response to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Preliminary Evaluation to examine post-severe crash battery performance. Has there ever been a year where an automobile has been named Motor Trend’s Car of the Year and also a Flop of the Year ? They should have called it the Paradox . You certainly can’t argue with the value though — it isn’t often you can buy a $250,000 car for just $41,000. In other Volt news, in spite of there being only 8,000 Volts sold in 2011 (1,529 in December alone, meaning either sales picked up or Al Gore used them as Christmas stocking stuffers), Michigan Rep. John Dingell thinks they’re flying off the lots : Following Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s claim that the Chevrolet Volt is an “idea whose time has not come,” Dingell apparently issued a press release that said, in part: Romney is the only fellow in the United States who appears to think that the Volt is an idea whose time has not come. Clearly it has not come to him. The Volt is selling like hotcakes . For a car being called back to repair a possible fire hazard, “hot cakes” probably isn’t the best choice of metaphor, and it certainly isn’t the most accurate one. **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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GM to Call Back Chevy Volts
AP – Bullish yet wary, President Barack Obama is highlighting recent economic bright spots while taking care not to overstate a recovery that still has not put millions back to work.
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Bright spots, dark clouds Obama seeks right tone
(AP)
Critics of the Chevy Volt might think it’s bad enough to be seen driving the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. Worse, however, is to be seen driving a Chevy Volt and then have everything around you catch on fire. Seriously. That’s the latest problem for General Motors, manufacturers of the the Chevy Volt, and it has prompted an investigation from U.S. auto-safety regulators. It all started when a Chevy Volt caught fire a full three weeks after its lithium-ion battery was damaged in a government crash test, federal officials said Friday. Adding the concern is the fact that is was no small fire. The fire was large enough to burn vehicles parked in the vicinity of the car, reports Jalopnk . “Lithium burns really hot,” said Sandy Munro, president of Munro and Associates, an engineering consulting firm in Troy, in phone interview with Bloomberg . “But it doesn’t happen often. You have to do something pretty dramatic to make it catch fire.” Regulators and GM believe the batteries are safe and don’t pose a greater fire risk than gasoline-powered engines. “I want to make this very clear: the Volt is a safe car,” Jim Federico, GM’s chief engineer, said in an e-mailed statement according to Bloomberg . “We are working cooperatively with NHTSA [the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] as it completes its investigation.” General Motors spokesman Greg Martin claims that the fire occurred because “the test did not follow procedures developed by GM engineers for handling the Volt after a crash. The engineers tested the Volt’s battery pack for more than 300,000 hours to come up with the procedures, which include discharge and disposal of the battery pack.” “Had those protocols been followed after this test, this incident would not have occurred,” he added. The company had not told the government of its protocols at the time of the test, another GM spokesman said. If it’s any consolation to consumers, after the Volt fire, NHTSA and GM each replicated the crash test and waited three weeks, but in neither case did the cars catch fire, officials said. Nor were the cars’ batteries damaged in those tests, officials said. The NHTSA official said the agency has been unable to explain why the Volt’s battery was damaged in one test but not in two others conducted in exactly the same manner. NHTSA, along with the Department of Energy, is continuing to test Volt batteries and monitor cars already in use. Government and GM officials said they are unaware of any similar fires among the 5,000 Volts now on the road. NHTSA is also asking manufacturers who currently have electric cars on the market, or who plan to introduce electric vehicles in the near future, for information on what procedures they have established for discharging and handling batteries, including recommendations for reducing fire risks. “NHTSA is focused on identifying the best ways to ensure that consumers and emergency responders are aware of any risks they may encounter in electric vehicles in post-crash situations,” the agency said in a statement. “Ultimately, we hope the information we gather will lay the groundwork for detailed guidance for first-responders and tow truck operators for use in their work responding to incidents involving these vehicles,” the agency said. After the crash test, NHTSA found a coolant leak and moved the damaged Volt to a back lot, where it was exposed to the elements, said Rob Peterson, a GM spokesman who specializes in electric cars. Exposure to the weather caused the coolant to crystalize, and that, combined with the remaining charge in the battery, were factors, he said. In a real-world crash, GM would be notified through its OnStar safety communications system and would send a team out to remove the battery for research purposes, he said. The safety of the Volt “really isn’t being questioned,” Peterson added. “What they’re investigating is how do you handle the vehicles longer-term; tow truck drivers, salvage yards, body shops, things like that.” In the event of a crash, NHTSA’s advice to consumers is to do the same thing they would do in a gasoline-powered car – get out of the vehicle and move a safe distance away. The agency also recommends against storing a severely damaged electric car in a garage or near other vehicles. Yet despite these assurances, it is still a fact that lithium-ion batteries, which are used in a vast array of consumer electronics, have a history of, you know, sometimes catching fire when damaged. Recall that back in 2010 the Federal Aviation Administration warned that lithium batteries were “highly flammable and capable of ignition” after a United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) cargo plane carrying thousands of the batteries “crashed in Dubai after catching fire, killing both pilots.” So the batteries in all electric cars are dangerous then? Not necessarily. Nissan Motor Co., which has more than 8,000 all-electric Leaf models on U.S. roads, and Tesla Motors Inc., with 2,000 cars sold worldwide, said their cars are extensively tested and have not started any fires after crashes. Therefore, it would seem that the combustible battery problem is exclusively a GM issue. Either they have a flawed battery design or they are simply the unluckiest car manufactures in the world. The Associated Press contributed to this story. (h/t Jalopnik )
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New Worries: Chevy Volt Battery Unexpectedly Catches Fire…Three Weeks After Being Damaged
AP – President Barack Obama has shored up support from mid-level donors in some of the most economically distraught areas of the country, even as his Republican challengers have made jobs a central issue heading into next year’s election.
Reuters – With support from the South Korean president, President Barack Obama sought on Friday to reassure U.S. auto workers that a new trade pact between the two countries would not cost Americans jobs.
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In Michigan, Obama defends auto bailout and touts trade
(Reuters)
**Written by Doug Powers Oh no… now where will Al Gore plug in his SUVs ? From the New York Times : Costco, the membership warehouse-club chain, was an early leader in offering electric-vehicle charging to its customers, setting an example followed by other retailers, including Best Buy and Walgreen. By 2006, Costco had installed 90 chargers at 64 stores, mostly in California but also some in Arizona, New York and Georgia. Even after General Motors crushed its EV1 battery cars, the Costco chargers stayed in place. Yet just as plug-in cars like the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt enter the market, Costco is reversing course and pulling its chargers out of the ground, explaining that customers do not use them. When a Costco manager in California was informed that there was a state-funded program that would allow them to upgrade the chargers at no cost to his company, he had a good point : “Why should we have anybody spend money on a program that nobody’s thought through?” he said. This guy’s too fiscally responsible to ever end up in elected office. **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Costco to Remove Electric Car Chargers Because Nobody’s Using Them
