"We need to learn what other interested parties would want to do." Wanxiang driving off with the $100,000-plus hybrid Karma wasn't the plan going into Fisker's bankruptcy filing. When the troubled Orange County-based automaker – funded with more than $1.2 billion in private money, and additional government loans – puttered into bankruptcy court late last year, it was Li, an early investor in the company, who seemed to have control. Li paid $25 million to buy a failed loan from the U.S. Department of Energy. Taxpayers were left holding the bag on the $139 million difference between the loan value and what Li paid. That all changed in December when lawyers representing Fisker creditors objected and presented an alternative to Li's plan, backed by Wanxiang and its Chinese billionaire Lu Guanqiu. Wanxiang had previously snapped up Fisker's sole battery supplier, A123, in bankruptcy court.