Fisker Automotive founder is out

Henrik Fisker who founded luxury plug-in electric car maker Fisker Automotive, has resigned from his executive chairman post and left the company, reported the Wall Street Journal's VentureWire blog.

Henrik Fisker told the WSJ he resigned over major disagreements between him and the company's executive management over business strategy.

His exit comes at a turbulent time for Fisker, which has struggled over the past year, and is currently negotiating a finance agreement with partners that could result in a sale of all or part of the company.

The company, which hasn't produced a vehicle since last summer, is hoping to secure backing from a financial partner to help build its second model, the Atlantic plug-in hybrid (pictured above).

The company announced in November plans to establish a technical center in the Midwest to develop the Atlantic. Fisker was counting on a $529 million Advanced Vehicle Technology loan from the U.S. Department of Energy to pay for the Atlantic's development. Fisker has used about $193 million of those funds, according to the company. The DOE, citing unmet milestones, blocked access to the remaining funds last year, Bloomberg reported at the time.

Fisker has suffered a number of blows, notably problems with batteries made by the bankrupt A123 Systems for its luxury electric cars. Last March, Fisker said it would swap out drive batteries for its 2012 Karma models free of charger after customers experienced unsatisfactory performance. This was the second recall for Fisker, which preemptively recalled faulty A123 systems batteries late last year for posing a fire hazard.

Photo: Fisker Automotive

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com