Southern California is in the car business again.
Fisker Automotive has signed a deal to lease a large factory in Moreno Valley, where it will begin building plug-in electric hybrid vehicles that could be offered for sale as early as the middle of next year.
The region, the nation's biggest car market, has not been home to an automobile manufacturing plant since General Motors closed a Van Nuys facility in 1992.
The admired but beleaguered luxury carmaker, which filed for bankruptcy in 2013 and was purchased by Chinese auto parts giant Wanxiang Group a year later, has signed an 11-year lease worth an estimated $30 million in the Riverside County city — signaling a long-term commitment by the company.