Karma Automotive to open engineering and sales center in Mich.

DETROIT -- Karma Automotive LLC, the Chinese-owned automaker created by the purchase of bankrupt Fisker Automotive Inc., plans to establish an engineering and sales office in suburban Detroit.The investment is expected to total $3.6 million and create up to 150 new jobs at the office in Troy, Mich., the Michigan Economic Development Corp. said in a statement Wednesday.The project is supported by a $450,000 Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant and the city of Troy will provide marketing and promotional assistance.Co-founded by Danish designer Henrik Fisker in 2007, Fisker Automotive planned to build expensive, high-powered luxury sedans. But a series of financial missteps and a recall crippled the automaker, which filed bankruptcy in 2013. The U.S. subsidiary of China's WanxiangGroup bought Fisker's assets out of bankruptcy months later for $149.2 million.Last September the company changed its name from Fisker to Karma. It plans to assemble its next generation of vehicles at a 555,670-square-foot factory in Moreno Valley, Calif.Karma Automotive said it will debut its Revero, an updated version of the Fisker Karma first sold in 2012, later this year.Wanxiang also acquired the bankrupt assets of Fisker's battery supplier, A123 Systems, in 2013 for $256.6 million. Fisker and A123 were subsidized by federal grants during the Great Recession.Automotive News contributed to this report.

Karma Automotive to open engineering and sales center in Mich.

Featured Stories