WASHINGTON (AP) - The Energy Department says it is selling a $192 million loan made to struggling electric car maker Fisker Automotive Inc.
The sale, to be held next month, is the latest setback for a half-billion-dollar loan guarantee offered to the California car maker in 2009 as part of the Obama administration's program to promote green energy.
The administration suspended the loan in 2011, after Fisker failed to meet a series of Energy Department benchmarks. Fisker has not produced a vehicle in more than a year and has laid off three-fourths of its workers.
Fisker had received $192 million before the loan was frozen. The DOE says it has recouped about $28 million since then; the auction will allow the government to collect as much of the remaining $168 million as possible.
Republicans earlier this year questioned Fisker's agreement to reopen a shuttered former General Motors factory in Wilmington, Del., to produce plug-in, electric hybrid vehicles. The plant was never completed and never produced any cars.
