Fisker Automotive lays off some workers as government reworks loan

Work on the Fisker Nina family sedan has temporarily halted at the Fisker Automotive plant in Wilmington, Del., while the carmaker and the federal government hash out details of the company's $529 million Department of Energy loan. The interruption has resulted in the layoff of 26 people at its Delaware plant and a number of contract engineers at Fisker's Anaheim, Calif., headquarters. Fisker Automotive said some of the engineering-staff reductions in Anaheim were already planned to occur in between development of the Karma and the Nina.

Project Car Hell, Straight Eight, Two Doors Edition: '47 Buick or '53 Packard?

Welcome back to another session in the Hell Garage, where you choose between a pair of projects that match coolness with torment. We've been through air-cooled German cars, cheap Italian cars and incomprehensible French cars in recent weeks, and now we're going to winch a couple of big American two-doors with straight-eight power out of the Lake of Fire. Before the V8 reigned supreme in luxury-car land, cars with long hoods and smooth-running inline-eight engines showed that you had made it, and we've found a pair of such cars that should be gorgeous when restored…after about a decade of work.

Volkswagen preps the Golf EV for 2013 launch

Volkswagen AG has begun delivery of a second test fleet of Golf blue-e-motion EVs to customers in Germany, the automaker said in a statement. Of the 80 cars being tested in the fleet, 53 will be delivered in Berlin, with the rest going to Hannover and Wolfsburg. The vehicles will be distributed to businesses, public bodies and private motorists, although the majority of cars in Berlin will be tested by corporate customers, as VW views this group as the largest market for EVs in the future.