In its latest bid to help finance the car of tomorrow, the Obama administration said it would lend more than $500 million to Irvine, Calif.-based Fisker Automotive to develop a pair of plug-in hybrids.

The loans, announced Tuesday, come from a $25 billion Department of Energy program to fund development of alternative vehicles. According to the administration, the funding will help create or save 5,000 jobs at Fisker and at related suppliers.

The $528.7 million low-interest loan "is another critical step in making sure we are positioned to compete for the clean energy jobs of the future," Energy Secretary Steven Chu said.

Over the summer, the department lent $8 billion to other automakers and suppliers under the same program.

The loans to Fisker are sure to spur the rivalry between it and Tesla Motors Inc., maker of a $109,000 all-electric sports coupe called the Roadster. Tesla, based in San Carlos, Calif., was awarded $465 million in Energy Department loans in June, primarily to build its second all-electric car, a sub-$50,000 sedan, in California.

Fisker plans to use $169.3 million of its loan to finish development and production of its $87,900 plug-in hybrid sedan, the Karma. That car will not be built in the U.S. Instead, Fisker is contracting Valmont, a Finland-based company, to assemble the Karma. Still, the Energy Department estimates that 65 percent of the vehicle's parts will come from U.S. suppliers.

Fisker will use the majority of the funds to develop its next-generation vehicle, called Project Nina: a "family-oriented, user-friendly" plug-in that would be built in the U.S. and cost $47,400. The automaker hopes to sell 75,000 to 100,000 of the cars annually, starting in 2012. Fisker has not announced a location for its U.S. production facility, although it does have an engineering office in Pontiac, Mich.

"This conditional loan represents a significant step in America's future," said Henrik Fisker, the automaker's chief executive, saying that it would "help restore the U.S. as an auto industry leader."

A release date for the Karma has been pushed back twice, first to next spring and now, according to Fisker, summer 2010.

Tesla began delivering its Roadsters early last year, and more than 500 have sold. The vehicle has a range of about 220 miles on a single charge.

While vehicles such as the Roadster run on battery power alone, Fisker's plug-in hybrids have both electric motors and gasoline engines and use them in concert. Yet because they have far larger batteries than hybrids such as the Toyota Prius, and can be charged by plugging them into an electrical outlet, they have the potential to be considerably more fuel-efficient.

Several automakers, including General Motors Co., are developing plug-in technology.