Posted on 12/30/2011 4:36:24 PM PST by Libloather
Electric car company that received a $529M federal loan recalls vehicles
By Andrew Restuccia - 12/30/11 10:31 AM ET
An electric vehicle manufacturer that received a $529 million loan from the Energy Department is recalling 239 vehicles.
The Transportation Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Thursday that the company, Fisker Automotive, will recall its Karma vehicles made between July 1, 2011, and Nov. 3, 2011, because of a faulty electric battery component that could cause a fire.
“Within the high-voltage battery, certain hose clamps may have been positioned incorrectly during assembly. If positioned incorrectly, the batter compartment cover could interfere with the hose clamps, potentially causing a coolant leak from the cooling hose,” NHTSA said in its recall notice Thursday.
“If coolant enters the battery compartment, an electrical short could occur possibly resulting in a fire.”
The Energy Department issued a $529 million loan to Fisker in April 2010 for the development of its plug-in electric vehicles.
The administration has come under fire for issuing the loan after ABC News reported in October that Fisker is making its vehicles in Finland because it could not find a contractor in America to manufacture them.
But the Energy Department has countered that the loan was intended to help Fisker develop the vehicles, which the company did in the United States.
The Energy Department said in October that the loan was used to develop manufacturing processes for the Karma, at the company’s U.S. facilities.
The department also said the larger portion of the loan — $359 million — was supporting production of Fisker’s Nina vehicles, and that Fisker used this funding to bring a shuttered General Motors plant in Delaware back to life. That plant employs 2,500 people, according to the Energy Department.
The news comes after Republicans have pummeled the Obama administration for issuing a $535 million loan guarantee in 2009 to the now-bankrupt California solar panel manufacturer Solyndra.
House Republicans have said they intend to broaden the scope of their ongoing Solyndra investigation to include other companies that have received backing from the administration, including Fisker.
Direct quote from “Throw Them All Out” (a book everyone that comes to Free Republic should read) by Peter Schweizer, pp 82:
“Friends indeed. The Department of Energy loan and grant programs might be the greatest—and most expensive—example of crony capitalism in American History. Tens of billions of dollars were transferred to firms controlled or owned by fundraisers, bundlers, and political allies, many of whom—surprise!—are raising money for Obama again.”
Another quote, pp 81 (the book is exceptionally well documented):
“The Government Accountability Office has been highly critical of the way guaranteed loans and grants were doled out by the Department of Energy, complaining that the process appears ‘arbitrary’ and lacks transparency. In March 2011, for example, the GAO examined the first eighteen loans that were approved and found that none were properly documented.”
And from pp 78:
“The so-called 1705 Loan Guarantee Program and the 1603 Grant Program channeled billions of dollars to all sorts of energy companies...In the 1705 government-backed loan program, for example, $16.4 billion of the $20.5 billion in loans granted went to companies either run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers—individuals who were bundlers, members of Obama’s National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party.” [My note: That’s 80% of OUR money went to his people.]
A lot of these people belong in jail for what they’ve done to the taxpayers. Seriously.
They’re pretty much stuck with lithium ion chemistry, and lithium metal does not behave nicely when exposed to the elements. It likes to, ya know, catch on fire. That is not a problem with conventional lead, but lead can’t take a charge like lithium can.
Still, it sounds like the battery needs to be encased more robustly.
It looks like a fancy golf cart. I wonder if the GPS tells you which club to use...
I’ve seen golf carts that look spiffier than the Smart car.
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