Help wanted: Delaware electric-car plant hiring 120

California-based Fisker Automotive says it's planning to hire 120 engineers, technicians and production workers, starting this weekend, at the former General Motors plant it is rebuilding in Wilmington, with help from half a billion dollars in US Government loans, so it can start production of "Project Nina," the company's mid-sized hybrid gasoline/plug-in battery-powered sedans, by the end of 2012.

"Forty electro-mechanical technicians, will be hired during July and August, a further 80 production employees will be added between October and February 2012, and there will be a continuous addition of jobs as the Project Nina platform nears full production," Fisker said in a statement today.

Fisker chief operating officer Bernhard Koehler called Fisker's Nina line, which is expected to retail for around $48,000, as "world-class American electric vehicles with extended range." The company employs around 300 directly, plus around 300 contract workers through other firms. The company already proces the higher-end Karma, made on a European production line, at more than twice that price.

Work on the Wilmington plant last summer, and Fisker says it's sold more than 11 million pounts of iron, steel, wood and alumimum to recyclers, using the proceeds to buy equipment and materials.