IRVINE, Calif. (AP) -- Electric car maker Fisker Automotive has finalized the $20 million purchase of a former General Motors Co. plant in Delaware where it plans to make a new plug-in hybrid sedan.
Fisker, which announced its plan to buy the Wilmington, Del., factory last October, said it took possession of the 3.2 million-square-foot plant on Monday.
The Irvine, Calif.-based automaker expects to employ more than 2,000 people at the plant. The sedan will go on sale in 2012.
GM opened the plant in 1947 and produced more than 8.5 million vehicles there before closing it in 2009. A federal bankruptcy court judge approved the sale to Fisker last month.
Fisker said a $528.7 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy helped fund the purchase. The loan comes from a $25 billion fund established by Congress in 2007 to help automakers develop fuel-efficient vehicles. Privately held Fisker raised more than $115 million from investors in order to tap into the government loans.
Fisker, which was founded in 2007 by Danish automobile designer Henrik Fisker, also makes the Karma, a plug-in hybrid sports car it plans to start selling later this year for $87,900. The sedan that will be built in Delaware will be a lower-cost family car.
Fisker Chief Operating Officer Bernhard Koehler said the automaker plans to export as much as half of its production outside the U.S.
