With the push for more electric vehicles being produced in the US, one can only wonder where it’s going to lead us. Tesla is building all electric vehicles here in the US with a decent range before needing a recharge.

But one manufacturer, Fisker Automotive, claimed to have plans to build hybrid cars here in the US but has yet to do so, claiming that they haven’t been able to find an affordable place to build them. The first units that they sold here, the Fisker Karma, were not only 2 years behind schedule, but were built in Finland.

This was not part of the agreement when they received the half-a-billion dollar loan from the US Department of Energy, who later froze the $529 million loan that Fisker has been drawing on since 2010. But now, after a Fisker Karma caught fire in a Texas garage, NHTSA investigators are working with local agencies to determine if there are safety risks involved with the car. Fisker representatives say the car was not plugged in at the time, and that the battery pack was still intact and functional.

However, Consumer Reports had done road tests on a Karma earlier this year and the car stopped working altogether. Fisker blamed the failure on a faulty battery and the batteries became the focus of a recall which raised the possibility of a fire. The fire seems to be generating more interest in the car than anything else, and negative attention usually does little for a manufacturer. EPA estimates claim that the Karma can go 32 miles on a single charge, compared to the all electric Tesla, which can go well over 200 miles on a single charge and is still capable of 130 mph.

So what have they done with the $169 million in taxpayer funds that they’ve used up so far? They say they’ve sold the first 1,000 Karmas, and are boasting about how they could be selling the $100k sport luxury car in Europe and in the Middle East. If that isn’t enough to bother you, Fisker may never build cars in the US unless it receives more federal support, despite the nearly $1 billion in private equity financing they have received. This all sounds like a load of e-waste, and after the fire in Texas, it’s starting to look that way, too.