Tom LaSorda, the former Chrysler and General Motors executive who joined Fisker Automotive in December as a vice chairman and adviser, will become Fisker?s new chief executive, the company announced Tuesday. The start-up?s founder and chief executive, Henrik Fisker, stepped down to serve as executive chairman.
?I will be very involved in design and styling and spend a lot of time building the brand,? Mr. Fisker said during a conference call.
Mr. LaSorda was the chief executive of Chrysler during its sale in 2007 to Cerberus Capital Management and previously spent over two decades at G.M., which included tenures at Buick and Opel. During Tuesday?s call, he said he personally invested in Fisker ?to show how committed I am and how much confidence I have in the company going forward.?
Fisker received a $529 million loan from the Energy Department in 2009 to complete work on the Karma sedan, currently in production in Finland, and to develop a smaller model, code-named Project Nina, to be built at a former G.M. plant in Delaware. Fisker drew down $193 million of the loan, but the company stopped receiving federal funds in May 2011 after it failed to meet loan benchmarks. In February, the company laid off more than 60 workers at its California headquarters and Delaware factory, and said it was working with the federal agency to renegotiate the terms of the loan.
?The D.O.E. funding has been played a lot in the media,? Mr. LaSorda said during Tuesday?s call, before claiming that the company could be profitable as early as 2013 without the federal money, and with the Karma sedan as the company?s primary revenue generator. The Nina launch date was uncertain, he said, but development was continuing, despite the halt in federal financing.
Roger Ormisher, a Fisker spokesman, said in a telephone interview after the conference call that talks were continuing with the Energy Department on ?agreeable milestones and deadlines.? He added, however, that the company was ?exploring other revenue sources? in the event the loan was not renewed. ?But we still have confidence that we can reach an agreement with the D.O.E.,? he said.
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