Biden Brings Home New Hybrid News, Jobs
Tuesday, Oct 27, 2009 | Updated 6:15 AM EDT
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U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden is expected to announce that the old GM plant will manufacture new plug-in cars.
Vice President Joe Biden is traveling to Delaware Tuesday to announce what's in store for the former General Motors assembly plant in Wilmington.
He's expected to confirm that Fisker Automotive, a California luxury automaker, will renovate the plant to produce plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
The plant would assemble as many as 100,000 hybrids a year and employ about 1,500 people, according to the New York Times.
Fisker recently received approval for $528.7 million in government loans to develop the "Project Ninja" plug-ins and a higher-end hybrid called the Karma. The Ninja would sell for about $40,000 after tax incentives and the Karma would go for around $80,000, according to the Washington Post.
"While some wanted to write off America's auto industry, we said no," Biden said in a statement to the Washington Post. "We knew that we needed to do something different -- we knew a new chapter had to be written."
The first Ninjas, which will be built in Finland, are expected to reach market in the summer of 2010. The next-generation plug-ins that would be assembled in Delaware would reach showrooms by 2012.
Delaware's GM plant produced the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice roadsters, as well as an Opel version that was exported to Europe, before closing this summer.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC 10 Philadelphia
