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Metso Corporation (HEL:MEO1V) Valmet Automotive press release on November 13, 2008 at 8.00 a.m.
Valmet Automotive and an American premium car company, Fisker Automotive Inc. have signed the final contract to manufacture Fisker Karma vehicles in Finland. Valmet Automotive will be the engineering and manufacturing supplier for Fisker Automotive.
Fisker Karma is a new four-door plug-in hybrid sports sedan and its production is planned to start in the Q4 of 2009. The first cars will be delivered to North America and the deliveries to Europe are planned to start 2010. The annual production is projected to reach 15,000 cars.
For the production of Fisker Karma, a new body welding line will be built at Valmet Automotive. The painting and assembly process can be easily adapted to the production of electric and hybrid cars.
"The agreement is very significant for us and our employment situation in the years to come", says Ilpo Korhonen, President of Valmet Automotive. "With the planned full production volume the cooperation with Fisker Automotive will employ some 500 blue collar workers at Valmet Automotive."
"Fisker Automotive and Valmet Automotive make a great, professional team. The schedule is demanding, but I am confident that with good cooperation the production will start in schedule. A hybrid drive train, battery technology and a new body design with light weight materials is a great challenge to our engineering and production teams. Our supplier quality management team is also involved in the project."
"We are pleased with the current progress in this working relationship and know that we have the team that will help us meet our production goal", says Fisker Automotive COO, Bernhard Koehler. "
"We are very pleased to have the final contract signed and are looking forward to a long business relationship with Valmet Automotive", says Fisker Automotive CEO, Henrik Fisker. Fisker Automotive is a privately owned American car company. The company was founded in 2007 as joint venture of Fisker Coachbuild, LLC and Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc., the leading supplier of powertrain engineering for electric vehicles.
Valmet Automotive is a provider of automotive engineering and manufacturing services of premium cars. In nearly 40 years the company has produced over 1,000,000 high-quality vehicles in Finland. The cars have been delivered worldwide. Today Valmet Automotive manufactures Porsche Boxster and Porsche Cayman for Porsche AG. The company is a part of Metso Corporation.
Further information for the press, please contact: Ilpo Korhonen, President, Valmet Automotive, tel. +358 204 84 8000
It should be noted that certain statements herein which are not historical facts, including, without limitation, those regarding expectations for general economic development and the market situation, expectations for customer industry profitability and investment willingness, expectations for company growth, development and profitability and the realization of synergy benefits and cost savings, and statements preceded by "expects", "estimates", "forecasts" or similar expressions, are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current decisions and plans and currently known factors. They involve risks and uncertainties which may cause the actual results to materially differ from the results currently expected by the company. Such factors include, but are not limited to: (1) general economic conditions, including fluctuations in exchange rates and interest levels which influence the operating environment and profitability of customers and thereby the orders received by the company and their margins (2) the competitive situation, especially significant technological solutions developed by competitors (3) the company's own operating conditions, such as the success of production, product development and project management and their continuous development and improvement (4) the success of pending and future acquisitions and restructuring.
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