Electric Car Blues, More Obama Waste

Another Obama idea blows up.
From the Detroit Free Press: Fisker Automotive laid off 161 employees Friday, or 75% of its work force, in another sign of deepening problems at the beleaguered electric car maker.
No one answered phones at the Anaheim, Calif., office Friday. The public relations staff was replaced with a crisis communications firm.
"Today, Fisker met with a group of employees in our southern California office to inform them that this is their last day with the company," Fisker said in a statement. "Yesterday, we met with a core group of employees in southern California to express our desire that they remain with the company while we continue to address the challenges before us. We expect that at the end of the day we will have retained approximately 25% of our work force....
The rank and file have been let go, but Fisker is retaining 53 executives and managers to continue efforts to secure financing or sell assets. The company faces an April 22 deadline to repay about $10 million of a $193-million government loan.
Fisker received $529 million from the Department of Energy to develop a second car, the Atlantic. But a rough launch of the original Karma, a $103,000 plug-in hybrid, and slow sales prompted the DOE to freeze $336 million in untapped loans. http://www.freep.com/article/20130406/BUSINESS01/304060014/Fisker-lays-off-161-workers
So us taxpayers are on the hook for at least $193.000,000, thanks to the Obama Administration.