Fisker Automotive founder Henrik Fisker with his plug-in hybrid, the $87,900 Karma.
HELP WANTED: Fisker Automotive is hiring about 120 employees for its Wilmington, Del., plant where it will build Project Nina.
Some of those hires, mostly electro-mechanical technicians and early teams of production workers, will be hired this summer.
Fisker’s second line of vehicles, which is code-named Project Nina, is expected to go into production at the end of 2012, with sales starting 2013.
The company said it has already gone through a significant expansion at its Anaheim, Calif., headquarters were the staff quadrupled from 50 workers to 300 between January 2010 and January 2011.
The workers in Wilmington will install new equipment and begin testing the manufacturing process as the company works on in-house vehicle production for the first time. Valmet Automotive in Finland is building Fisker’s first car, the Karma luxury four-door.
Click here to read TheDetroitBureau.com’s special report on Fisker’s plans.
“This is an exciting time for Fisker. As we bring the Fisker Karma sedan to market and start delivering to customers, we are simultaneously starting to employ a world-class American workforce to build world-class American electric vehicles with extended range in a re-commissioned American plant,” Fisker Chief Operating Officer, Bernhard Koehler.
Fisker’s cars use a gasoline-electric system, similar to the Chevrolet Volt’s system. Fisker calls its system “electric vehicles with extended range” or EVer.
Fisker also said that it has recycled 11.2 million pounds of iron, steel, aluminum and wood from the Wilmington plant. In addition, it is reusing materials, such as turning scrap wood from the Wilmington production line as flooring in its Anaheim facility.
Fisker has said little about Project Nina other than it will be a mid-size premium sedan that will use the EVer system. No pictures have been released.