Henrik Fisker Resigns From Fisker Automotive Fisker Automotive announced on Wednesday that Henrik Fisker, its co-founder and executive chairman, had left the company. In a statement, the company thanked Mr. Fisker for his service and said his departure was "not expected to impact the company's pursuit of strategic partnerships and financing to support Fisker Automotive's continued progress." The company declined requests for interviews. In an e-mail to Automotive News, the company said the reason for Mr. Fisker's resignation was "several major disagreements" regarding the business strategy of the company's executive management. Tony Posawatz, who replaced Mr. Fisker as the company's chief executive in August, said on Wednesday, "We're in the midst of some serious negotiating." Mr. Posawatz previously was vehicle line director at General Motors for the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid. On Feb. 18, Reuters reported that the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group of China had made a bid of $200 million to $300 million to acquire a majority stake in Fisker Automotive. Geely is the owner of Volvo, the Swedish automaker, which it acquired in 2010 for $1.8 billion. "One possibility is that Mr. Fisker thought if there's an acquisition, the new company could say they're in control over direction," said John Gartner, research director for the Smart Transportation practice of Pike Research. Given that Geely is a Chinese company, Mr. Gartner said, it could take significant steps to reduce costs. "Fisker's board could say that they have to do what's necessary to make the deal," he said. "Maybe Henrik Fisker thought, "It's not going to be my company anymore."" Mr. Fisker impressed the automotive world with the design of the company's luxury Karma plug-in hybrid when it unveiled a preproduction version in 2008 at the Detroit auto show. But since then the company has been plagued by mixed critical reviews of the car, as well as business setbacks and technical problems (including two recalls). In addition, the Karma's federal fuel-economy ratings were disappointing and its all-electric range proved limited. After repeated delays, Fisker Automotive made its first sale of the Karma in October 2011. The company had sold about 1,800 units before production was suspended in November 2012, one month after A123 Systems, its battery supplier, declared bankruptcy. As long as Fisker is unable to produce and sell vehicles, it cannot raise the revenue needed to restart production and continue development of the Atlantic, a lower-price vehicle it plans to make at a former G.M. plant in Delaware. In late 2009, Fisker was awarded a $528.7 million loan from the Energy Department, but that money was frozen after Fisker fell short of its production targets. It's not uncommon for the leadership of high-tech and automotive start-ups to replace visionary founders with chief executives who have more tactical experience. In 2007, Martin Eberhard, Tesla Motors" first chief executive, was fired. In November 2010, Kevin Czinger, the first chief executive of Coda Automotive, resigned. And in October 2012, Shai Agassi, the founder of Better Place, an electric car infrastructure company, stepped down. Before founding Fisker Automotive, Mr. Fisker was a top design executive for BMW, Ford Motor and Aston Martin. In addition to the Karma, his design credits include the BMW Z8 and the Aston Martin DB9 and V8 Vantage models. An earlier version of this post gave the incorrect year for the unveiling of the preproduction version of the Fisker Karma at the Detroit auto show. It was shown in 2008, not 2007.