Fisker to resume production this year, finish Atlantic project

Wanxiang isn\'t wasting any time getting Fisker up and running.

Fisker Automotive, now under the ownership of China's Wanxiang Group, will restart production of its Karma plug-in sedan "within a year,” a top executive has revealed. The California-based automaker also hopes to soon finish the development of a second, more affordable plug-in hybrid model.

Wanxiang has only held the deed to Fisker for a few weeks now, but China's largest part supplier isn't wasting any time getting the dormant automaker up and running. Wanxiang plans to restart production of the Karma at Fisker's plant in Finland by year's end.

"We would like to restart Karma production within a year,” Pin Ni, head of the U.S. unit of the Wanxiang Group, told Reuters.

The Karma will once again be sold in the United States once production resumes, but Wanxiang will also add Europe to the sedan's list of global markets. Ni failed to give any sales targets for the Karma's second go-around, but the executive indicated the company was targeting far more than the 1,800 units Fisker's previous management achieved.

Ni also hinted that the Karma could eventually be produced with "a potential partner out of Michigan," but failed to elaborate. However, Bob Lutz's VL Automotive, which modifies Karmas to use gas engines at a plant in Auburn Hills, Michigan, could be that potential partner.

In addition to restarting production of the Karma, Wanxiang also has plans to finish development of a second Fisker model. At the time of its bankruptcy, Fisker was working on a second, lower-priced plug-in model called the Atlantic. Tagged as the company's "volume model,” the Atlantic was originally scheduled to begin production in 2015.