Fisker about to be bought by Volvo’s Chinese owner Geely?

It’s reported that China’s Geely – which bought Volvo from Ford – is about to take a majority stake in Fisker Automotive.

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Henrik Fisker is a smart man, and he’s convinced the world that the electric Fisker Karma is a viable luxury range extender EV.

But Fisker has run in to big problems when its battery supplier – A123 Systems – went bust leading to Fisker production grinding to a halt. That has now been resolved with China’s Wanxiang Group buying up A123 Systems and it looks like Fisker is heading East too with Geely set to grab a majority shareholding.

Reuters are reporting that two Chinese companies – Geely and Dongfeng – are bidding to take a majority stake in Fisker for somewhere between $200-300 million, with Geely looking to be the likely winner.

Geely’s experience in taking Volvo off Ford and making a decent job of making it properly viable – and Geely’s ability to move quickly on a deal that is crucial to Fisker – looks like it means Geely will pip the state-run Dongfeng to the Fisker prize.

It seems Geely has already sent a team of engineers to Fisker’s HQ in  Anaheim, California, to assess the future viability of Fisker’s range-extender Karma and of Project Nina – which we now know is the Fisker Atlantic – ahead of any deal.

With a decent injection of cash Fisker should have more than a fighting chance of making both the Karma and Atlantic viable, and Geely are probably their best bet.

But it’s a shame Henrik Fisker can’t keep control of his baby.

Fisker Atlantic Video