Fisker blames Mitt Romney for government loan lockdown: Motoramic Dash

Welcome to the Motoramic Dash, a quick read of the top stories around the automotive world this morning.

The neverending saga of the Fisker Karma took a turn for the political after Fisker's chairman told a Delaware newspaper that the company would have been able to get more of the $529 million loan promised by the federal government if Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney hadn't criticized such loans. That response came a day after Romney's spokesman called the loans to Fisker a "failed investment."

I've written at length about Fisker's struggles, including the buggy launch of the Karma plug-in hybrid and new CEO's Tom LaSorda's all-out push to cut costs and build its proposed next model, the Atlantic -- including laying off most of the remaining workers at its proposed new plant in Delaware this week. Given that Fisker missed the sales targets set out by the U.S. Department of Energy for its loan, the money would be in doubt no matter the political climate.

But Ray Lane, the former Oracle executive who chairs Fisker's board, took exception after a Romney spokesman said the Fisker loan was an example like the bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra of a failed investment by President Barack Obama. In an email to The News Journal in Wilmington, Del., Lane said Romney's political attacks had kept the Energy Department from striking a new deal with Fisker: "Irony is Romney doesn't understand he's the problem and he's lumping a company that did $100m in q1 with a company that's bankrupt."