[DML] Update on Who Bought the Solstice Boxwood plant and what about DMC?

[Bob Brandys <BobB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Date 10-12-09  http://fiskerbuzz.com/forums/archive/index.php/thread-36.html

"The Boxwood Road plant also drew a visit from Penske Automotive Group, which had planned to buy the Saturn brand from GM. That deal fell through at the end of last month when Penske could not reach a deal with a third-party manufacturer to build cars for Saturn.
DeLorean revival a possibility

While most potential buyers have said little about their interest, one company is taking the opposite approach. Last week, the current incarnation of DeLorean Motor Co. publicly floated the idea of building the Solstice at the Boxwood Road plant.

The original DeLorean Motor Co. was launched in 1975 by former GM executive John DeLorean, who as an engineer helped reinvigorate the Pontiac division with cars such as the GTO. DeLorean's short-lived company was best known for its DMC-12 sports car, which was featured in the "Back to the Future" movies.

Entrepreneur Stephen Wynne bought the remaining inventory of DeLorean parts in 1997, and his company operates under the DeLorean Motor Co. name, servicing existing cars and rebuilding a small number of new ones.

Wynne said the Houston-area company, with about 20 employees, has been looking for another product to keep the DeLorean brand alive. The idea of rebranding the Solstice fits in with the company's history and heritage, Wynne said.

"With that plant and that tooling and that product range, it just makes absolute sense to continue on," he said.

Wynne said his company has had no contact with Motors Liquidation or Delaware officials, nor does it have funding in place. The company first wanted to gauge response from the public, which Wynne called "phenomenal."

He said the next step will be to put a management team together and approach the state and Motors Liquidation about acquiring the Boxwood Road site.

"First of all, we've got to find out, what is the magic number?" Wynne said. "Once we find out what the number is, then we'll go out looking for the funding."




Date 3-2-10- http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100228/BUSINESS/2280365/Much-is-riding-on-Fisker-s-new-cars

Henrik Fisker admits to a lifelong fascination with very fast cars.

Soon, he will find out if the lessons he learned in two decades of designing sexy speed machines can translate into success in the brutal luxury auto marketplace for the first car bearing his name.

"People feel very emotional about cars, and I don't want them to feel bad about driving a fast car," Fisker said last fall, as he steered a growling roadster through rush-hour traffic in Los Angeles. "We're building beautiful and fast cars that you can drive without having a bad conscience or ruining the environment."

The cars Fisker Automotive plans to build one day in a now-silent factory on Boxwood Road still remain something of a mystery. There are plenty of drawings and photos in circulation, but no hands-on, test-driven experience for auto experts and critics.

Some of that veil will lift this week on what is familiar ground for Fisker and his partner, Bernhard Koehler, as they debut the space-age body frame and the lithium-ion battery for the $90,000 Fisker Karma sedan at the Geneva Motor Show.

When Fisker and Koehler return to the U.S., they will be focused on the stretch run toward the Karma's scheduled fall rollout in thousands of showrooms and the continued design of the next generation of the startup's electric hybrid line, the Nina, which the firm plans to build from the plant near Newport it has committed to buy from the bankrupt shell of the old General Motors Corp.

The two will be stopping in Delaware in March: Fisker, Fisker Automotive's CEO, on March 8 as the keynote speaker at the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce's annual dinner, and Koehler, the company's chief operating officer, on March 24 as the keynote speaker at the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce's Legislative Brunch and Manufacturing Conference.

Much is at stake: a $528.7 million low-cost federal loan, hundreds of millions in venture capital already invested in the firm and -- here -- the hopes of several thousand autoworkers looking to resume a career shattered by the collapse of GM. State incentives also are on the line.


Henrik Fisker admits to a lifelong fascination with very fast cars.

Soon, he will find out if the lessons he learned in two decades of designing sexy speed machines can translate into success in the brutal luxury auto marketplace for the first car bearing his name.

"People feel very emotional about cars, and I don't want them to feel bad about driving a fast car," Fisker said last fall, as he steered a growling roadster through rush-hour traffic in Los Angeles. "We're building beautiful and fast cars that you can drive without having a bad conscience or ruining the environment."

The cars Fisker Automotive plans to build one day in a now-silent factory on Boxwood Road still remain something of a mystery. There are plenty of drawings and photos in circulation, but no hands-on, test-driven experience for auto experts and critics.

Some of that veil will lift this week on what is familiar ground for Fisker and his partner, Bernhard Koehler, as they debut the space-age body frame and the lithium-ion battery for the $90,000 Fisker Karma sedan at the Geneva Motor Show.

When Fisker and Koehler return to the U.S., they will be focused on the stretch run toward the Karma's scheduled fall rollout in thousands of showrooms and the continued design of the next generation of the startup's electric hybrid line, the Nina, which the firm plans to build from the plant near Newport it has committed to buy from the bankrupt shell of the old General Motors Corp.

The two will be stopping in Delaware in March: Fisker, Fisker Automotive's CEO, on March 8 as the keynote speaker at the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce's annual dinner, and Koehler, the company's chief operating officer, on March 24 as the keynote speaker at the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce's Legislative Brunch and Manufacturing Conference.

Much is at stake: a $528.7 million low-cost federal loan, hundreds of millions in venture capital already invested in the firm and -- here -- the hopes of several thousand autoworkers looking to resume a career shattered by the collapse of GM. State incentives also are on the line.

Fisker will use the Wilmington factory for its NINA project to produce family-oriented, plug-in, electric hybrid cars beginning in late 2012, ramping up to full-capacity production of 75,000 to 100,000 vehicles by 2014.

The new hybrid will be driven by an electric motor powered by a lithium-ion battery. When the battery is depleted, the car will be powered by a generator driven by a gasoline engine.

Fisker said the car would be sold for about 39,900 dollars after federal tax credits.

More than half of the production will be exported, "the largest percentage of any domestic manufacturer," the Irvine, California-based company said.

"This is a major step toward establishing America as a leader of advanced vehicle technology," said Henrik Fisker, Fisker chief executive.

Fisker's first car -- the Karma -- is expected to go on sale in mid-2010 at retailers in the US and Europe.

The company said its plug-in hybrid cars will help remove the country's dependence on foreign energy by eliminating the need for 42 million barrels of oil by 2016 and will offset 8.0 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

So the question is will DMC be working with Fisker?

Bob

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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