get ready to hear the word 'Fisker' a lot over the coming days...

[srican69]

Barring a last-minute rescue, Fisker is poised to become another DeLorean Motor Co. or Tucker Corp., a symbol of the difficulties of creating entirely new car companies. Unlike those others, it also represents one of the most prominent failures of the government's use of public funds to wean American industry from fossil fuels—and of how that government interest pushed Fisker to reach too far.

Its biggest single investor was the U.S. In 2009, the Obama administration's interest in cultivating electric cars got the untested Fisker loans totalling $529 million, more than the company had initially requested, and an amount that encouraged private backers to chip in more funds. At one point, backers valued the company at $1.8 billion

From the wall st journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324874204578440640183079794.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

[Common Sense Party]

1. Have to be a WSJ subscriber to read that.

Here is a CNN link for anyone who doesn't subscribe to the Journal:

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/23/news/companies/fisker-taxpayers/

[Orsino]

7. Have to be a WSJ subscriber to believe it, too.

Investment in a particular company is also an investment in every goddamned one of its employees and suppliers. It's stimulus, and only the most fatuous onlooker could conclude that a bankruptcy is a total failure.

Fisker IP and expertise doesn't vanish just because the MSM have forgotten how to their jobs.

[TroglodyteScholar]

9. Subscribe to WSJ?

A bigger waste of money than funding alternative energy technologies....

[Common Sense Party]

2. So Tesla is doing great, apparently. Did Tesla not also receive government loans?

I think they got $465 million in federal loan money a couple years ago.

[edhopper]

3. Obama's success rate

"With just 1.4% of its Recovery Act clean tech investments in “losers”, it looks like the Obama administration is batting a much better average in “picking winners and losers” than the private Venture Capital (VC) market itself."
http://cleantechnica.com/2011/10/21/obama-doe-picked-more-energy-winners-than-silicon-valley-vcs/

"A total of five have gone bankrupt, according to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. All of the failed companies that the Committee identified came from just two programs that received significant dollar amounts from the Department of Energy. Those two programs funded 63 firms. The other 58 are still in business. That's a failure rate of about 8%. "
http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/22/news/economy/obama-energy-bankruptcies/index.html

But no one wants to talk about the over costs in defense spending.
Or the waste in fossil fuel subsidies.

[srican69]

5. unfortunately, idiots will keep hammering away with the new stick they found... they don't have

Obama's or our countries best interests at heart ... they are in it for themselves.

[bullwinkle428]

4. Too late - wingnuts have already been pushing the "Fisker = Solyndra" meme

for a couple of weeks on other sites I visit.

[frylock]

6. why on earth would the govt invest that much money in a luxury sports sedan?

I'm all for alternative energy, but the Fisker Karma was not an affordable consumer level vehicle.

[Orsino]

8. Prototypes never are.

Without even looking, I'll assume that Fisker's expensive toys were also a step toward the development of more affordable products.

[frylock]

10. then why not start out with a vehicle similar to the prius?

something affordable that the average consumer could use? a base model Karma will set you back $100,000. I saw one recently and they're beautiful cars, but who is buying them?

[Orsino]

12. A company the size of Toyota can take that risk.

A start-up can't wait a decade to start making money per unit.

[Initech]

11. You can't market an expensive sedan to a limited audience that's not interested in the first place.

And expect to attract customers. No company on earth is capable of that. Why compete with established brands like Maserati, Mercedes, Ferrari, Porsche, Bentley, and all the other brands the über rich people plunk their hard earned (or otherwis) dollars on?