Fisker Taps Co-Founder to Seek Alliance

Anaheim, Calif.-based hybrid car maker Fisker Automotive Inc. has named co-founder and chief operating officer Barny Koehler to the newly created post of chief business development officer.

He will report to CEO Tom LaSorda. Fisker did not say whether it would appoint a new COO.

The company says Koehler's new job will focus on strategic initiatives and new business opportunities, including pursuing strategic alliances, sharing advanced technology and exploring manufacturing synergies with potential global partners.

Those duties will be crucial to the company's future as it scrambles to find investors or a foreign carmaking partner to enable Fisker to produce the upcoming Atlantic plug-in hybrid midsize sedan. The company said in April it would announce a decision this summer about building the new $50,000-$60,000 model.

Fisker planned to build the Atlantic at a former General Motors Co. assembly plant in Wilmington, Del. But work halted there in February when the U.S. Dept. of Energy froze a $529 million loan.

Koehler's previous responsibility was bringing the $103,000 Karma plug-in hybrid sedan to market late last year. Before co-founding the carmaker with Henrik Fisker in 2007, Koehler was head of Ford Motor Co.'s global advanced design studio. He previously spent 22 years as a designer at BMW AG.