A $528.7 million Department of Energy loan with Fisker Automotive for the development and production of two lines of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) has been closed. The loan will support the Karma, a full-size, four-door sports sedan, and a line of family oriented models being developed under the company's Project NINA program.

Fisker automobiles are range-extended electric vehicles, driven by electric motors that get their power from a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery, or, when that is depleted, by a generator driven by an efficient gas-powered engine.

Fisker, a startup based in southern California, expects to manufacture the Karma and Project NINA lines at a recently shuttered General Motors factory in Wilmington, Delaware.

When full production is reached in 2015, Fisker estimates annual sales at up to 115,000 vehicles. Combining Fisker projected sales volume with the expected sales volume of the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model S, sales of electric and PHEVs funded with DOE ATVM loans could exceed 300,000 annually, according to Fisker.

If everything goes according to plan, the plant will employee nearly 2,000 people.