Delaware is offering support to a plan to auction off what’s left of bankrupt Fisker Automotive.
Ahead of a scheduled hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington Friday, lawyers for the state’s Delaware Economic Development Authority (DEDA) told the judge in papers filed Thursday they support an auction over Fisker's current plan to sell what’s left of the company to Hybrid Tech.
Fisker’s sale plan is being challenged by a bid from Chinese auto parts company Wanxiang, which owns Fisker’s former battery maker. Wanxiang said in a court documents this week it could eventually produce a second generation of Fisker cars at the former GM Boxwood Road plant in Newport where Fisker once planned to produce cars.
In court documents filed last week, Hybrid said it has no plans use the Boxwood Road facility.
Delaware gave Fisker a series of loans and grants totaling just over $20 million in 2009 when the company promised to create nearly 2,500 jobs by 2015 by building cars at the shuttered GM Boxwood road plant.
In statements included with DEDA's court filing, Gov. Jack Markell, Senator Tom Carper and Congressman John Carney expressed their support for any process that might lead to cars being built at the Boxwood Road plant.
Markell called Wanxiang's statement that it may produce cars at the old GM plant a "positive development."
"We hope the Court sees it that way too, and decides to allow a fair an full evaluation of all proposals to acquire Fisker's assets. The Court's decision Friday will not ensure the return of automobile manufacturing to the plant, but it could preserve the significant possibility of doing so if all options are on the table,' said Markell in the statement. "The sole purpose of the state's loan and grant was to provide a future for a sector of the Delaware economy hard hit by the recession, so we strongly support any path forward that could lead to that result."
In a joint statement, Carper and Carney echoed those sentiments.
"We believe an open process might attract a bidder who is interested in carrying out Fisker’s original vision, including the manufacturing of a new vehicle model produced in high volume. It is the production of such a vehicle that would require the capacity provided by the Delaware plant. Production of the vehicles at the Delaware plant would meet the original goal for creating new, highly skilled, high-paying manufacturing jobs in the United States and in Delaware. We will do what we can to help that promise become reality,” said Carper and Carney.
