Fisker gets last-ditch bid from Wanxiang

The mainland's largest car-parts company made a surprise bid for Fisker Automotive just days before the bankrupt maker of the Karma plug-in hybrid sports car was to be sold to a Hong Kong tycoon, according to court documents.

Fisker creditors asked the US Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, to scrap Fisker's agreed sale to a company affiliated with Richard Li Tzar-kai and instead hold an open auction at which Wanxiang America plans to bid.

Wanxiang outbid Johnson Controls last year in a bankruptcy auction for most of the assets of A123 Systems, which made batteries for Fisker's cars.

"They are extremely capable and knowledgeable of the industry and know how to get things done," said William Baldiga, a Brown Rudnick lawyer who represents Fisker's official creditors' committee.

Both Fisker and A123 obtained green-technology loans from the Department of Energy. Critics of the government's loan programme tried to get regulators to block the sale of A123 to Wanxiang, arguing that sensitive technology was being transferred to an economic rival.

Baldiga said he did not anticipate similar problems with the sale of Fisker's assets, which he said were primarily related to automotive design.