Chairman of DOE-backed electric car firm resigns

The chairman of a struggling electric car firm that got $529 million in Energy Department (DOE) loans resigned Wednesday.

Henrik Fisker, executive chairman and co-founder of Fisker Automotive, told The Detroit News in an email he would leave the firm because of “several major disagreements” regarding long-term strategy.

Fisker collected $193 million of its federal loan before DOE froze it last year after it fell behind on bringing its Karma vehicle to the United States market. In turn, the company put on hold a Wilmington, Del., plant that would have produced a different model. Vice President Biden attended the groundbreaking for that facility in 2009.

The firm also has endured several recalls and has not produced a car in six months. It's currently searching for a buyer — possibly in China.

That is sure to elicit jeers from Republicans, who have criticized many DOE clean-energy loan and grant programs.

Republicans used Fisker's recent troubles in post-election attacks against President Obama's green energy efforts that they label a failure. GOP operatives also circulated news of the resignation Wednesday on Twitter.

Republican Sens. John Thune (S.D.) and Chuck Grassley (Iowa) have been particularly wary about recent sales of government-backed firms to foreign entities.

The senators were leading opponents of a Chinese firm’s purchase of A123 Systems. The Waltham, Mass.-based battery maker had received a $249 million DOE grant in 2009, though won't collect the remaining $117 million of that award.

Grassley has also said he worries Fisker could run into the same problems as A123.

“Like A123, this looks like another example of taxpayer dollars going to a failed experiment. Technology developed with American taxpayer subsidies should not be sold off to China. I hope there's at least some accountability at the Department of Energy, but given its track record, I'm not holding my breath,” he told The Detroit News in February.