Fisker, the company behind the Karma hybrid sports car, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this weekend. The company hasn’t had very good luck these past few years. The company originally set out to make green cars sexy, but it has been floundering for the better part of two years due to car fires, faulty batteries, […]
A lot of places suffered the wrath of Sandy as it collided with the East Coast last week, but one manufacturer in particular was left with quite a mess to clean up after Sandy had passed. Fisker says that 300 of its Karma electric vehicles were destroyed by Sandy as they sat in a New Jersey port. Fisker sells each one of those Karmas for about $100,000 here in the States, so Sandy managed to destroy a lot of really expensive product when it made landfall.
Luckily, Fisker thought ahead and had each and every Karma insured. The cars were destroyed when the port flooded, though some of the Karmas actually caught fire when the saltwater shorted their batteries. The wind from Hurricane Sandy made things worse, spreading the fire to other cars. In the end, 16 Karmas had caught fire, but Fisker says there weren’t any explosions.
Even though having 300 cars destroyed is a pretty big loss, Fisker says it probably won’t suffer too much of a financial setback and that this shouldn’t cause any immediate problems with stock in the US, since there already cars in the States waiting to be sold. All in all, it sounds like Fisker will be relatively okay despite the fact that Sandy destroyed 300 completed and ready-to-be sold Karmas.
Fisker hasn’t been having the best of luck lately. Earlier in the year there were reports of Karmas randomly catching fire, and it wasn’t too long ago that we heard of one of Fisker’s manufacturing partners running out cash and selling off assets. Fisker could really use a pick-me-up right about now, but at it least it sounds like the company dodged a very expensive bullet when Sandy came to town.
[via Wall Street Journal]
Fisker hit hard by Hurricane Sandy is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Having been riddled with setbacks, including a major recall of faulty batteries supplied to Fisker Automotive, Michigan’s favorite EV battery maker A123 Systems has filed for bankruptcy. It has also announced the sale of its main business units to rival Johnson Controls in a deal pegged at $125 million — a sad fraction of the billion dollars it raised since it launched in 2001 (not least from government grants). It seems that neither fresh lithium ion innovations nor a potential deal with Chinese investors were able to keep the company out of the red, which leaves A123 on the road to nowhere — right behind that other DoE-sponsored hopeful, Ener1.
Continue reading A123 Systems becomes America’s latest EV battery maker to file for bankruptcy
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A123 Systems becomes America’s latest EV battery maker to file for bankruptcy originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Oct 2012 06:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The outlook is been a bit murky for automaker Fisker for a while. The company has sold a handful of its $100,000 plus plug-in hybrid luxury sport sedans called the Karma so far. However, the company has been plagued with vehicle fires and more recently a scathing review of the Karma from Consumer Reports.
Fisker had originally landed a low-interest loan from the US Energy Department, only to have the loan blocked when the company was late bringing the vehicle to market. When the company had its loan pulled, there was concerned about its ability to launch its Delaware plant to build its vehicles. Fisker has now reaffirmed that it will be opening the Delaware plant.
Fisker recently raised over $100 million from private investors and is continuing work on plans to produce a second vehicle model, the Atlantic, at a new plant in Wilmington, Delaware. Fisker says that issues that led to federal regulators suspending access to its government loan have been resolved. Fisker’s Tony Posawartz said, “At an appropriate time, we will revisit the discussion with them of the possibility of accessing the remainder of the loan.”
Fisker and its battery manufacturer have also been forced to conduct a recall to replace battery packs in some of the initial Karma vehicles at a significant cost. Fisker has also had to replace cooling fans on some Karmas. Fisker offered no indication of a timeframe for the opening of its Delaware plant.
[via SF Gate]
Fisker still plans Delaware factory is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
I think most people knew back in March that Consumer Reports’ review of the Fisker Karma wasn’t going to go well. Consumer Reports ordered up its most expensive car ever for review at over $107,000, and the vehicle broke down before Consumer Reports had finished checking it into its fleet. That initial flaw was foreshadowing for what was to come when the vehicle returned.
Consumer Reports has now published its official review of the Fisker Karma and slammed the car saying that the vehicle is “plagued with flaws.” The reviewers complained that the vehicle has tight confines and limited visibility. Reviewers also complained that the touchscreen system in the car was poorly designed and that the dash controls were an economic disaster.
Fisker isn’t the first automaker to land in hot water with reviewers and consumers over difficult to use dash controls and touchscreens. Ford has had its share issues with its infotainment systems. Consumer Reports does note that the vehicle has “sound” ride, handling, and braking performance. The publication also lauded the first-class interior materials.
However, Consumer Reports’ Jake Fisher, the director of the publication’s Auto Test Center, said that the bad points outweighed the good with the vehicle. It’s also worth noting that Consumer Reports says its engineers noticed continuing intermittent glitches related to gauges, power windows, warning lights, and the radio since Fisker replaced the battery packs of the Karma in a recall earlier this year.
[via CNN]
Consumer Reports slams the Fisker Karma saying it’s “plagued with flaws” is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Fisker has had more than its fair share of teething troubles with the Karma, but it has to be given credit for going out of its way to listen to early adopters. The hybrid car builder has confirmed to Autoblog that a question and answer session making the rounds is the official result of town hall discussions that have both acknowledged problems and promised fixes where they’re possible. The answers we’ve been given are a mix of sober realities and practical remedies. Drivers hoping for outright hardware upgrades to improve performance with existing Karmas will have to keep wishing; thankfully, a host of firmware fixes are on the way to improve at least the sedan’s Command Center system and mirrors. PR lead Roger Ormisher even hints that there could be an in-person council that would tackle concerns more directly than the remote pep talks. We’re mostly hoping for the day when Fisker stamps out the bugs and doesn’t need the Q&A to put Karma owners’ minds at ease.
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Fisker confirms Q&A outlining Karma woes and fixes, may establish council to talk issues in person originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Aug 2012 06:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Like the ambitious diner at the all-you-can-eat-buffet, Fisker’s got a lot on its plate. Between recalling all of its self-immolating Karma models, taking flack from its rivals and hiring a new CEO, something had to give. As such, it’s halted production on the Surf and Sunset while it concentrates on getting the Nina / Atlantic onto the streets. However, one-percenters needing a five-door EV are in luck — Fisker’s Roger Ormisher has said that “if someone came along with a big enough checkbook” they’d discuss building a model tailored to their needs. While he remained coy about a specific price in his statement to Autoblog (after the break), a Fisker Buzz member has pegged the figure to be $200,000 — but hey, that’s pocket change to you, right?
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Fisker halting Surf production, but will build you one if you’ve got a ‘big enough checkbook’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 14:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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“I don’t think very highly of Henrik Fisker,” Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, told Automobile magazine in a recent interview. Musk was recalling events leading up to a 2008 lawsuit in which Tesla accused Fisker of pilfering its hybrid technology to build the Fisker Karma. Musk isn’t a fan of the automobile, and suggests its creators put form over function. “It’s a mediocre product at a high price,” he says. “[Fisker] thinks the most important thing in the world — or the only important thing in the world — is design, so he outsourced the engineering and manufacturing.” Still, Musk concedes that Fisker’s eye for aesthetics paid off in some respects. “It looks good,” he said. “Particularly from the side it looks good.”
The magazine gave Henrik Fisker a chance to respond, who said that he was “delighted that Elon thinks the Karma is a good-looking car,” and stressed that Tesla and Fisker are targeting different customers with two “totally different technologies.” He was quick to address the firms’ previous legal squabbles too, “to set the record straight, Fisker won in court… a judge threw out the case and awarded costs to Fisker.” True enough, but in light of recent events, we can think of at least one Karma owner who might agree with Musk.
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CE-Oh no he didn’t!: Tesla’s Elon Musk calls the Fisker Karma a ‘mediocre product at a high price’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Aug 2012 08:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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An official statement has been released regarding the Fisker Karma roadside fire incident that occurred back on the 10th of August. This incident has been provided with a detailed account by none other than Fisker representatives who speak in detail on what caused the fire and how a recall on a cooling fan inside the vehicle will be conducted. At the moment it appears that the recall campaign will not have a financial impact on Fisker.
The incident at hand has been described as a fire in the left front of the vehicle which sat specifically forward of the wheel and started near the low temperature cooling fan. This fan has been accused of starting the fire, and will be the subject of a recall. Fisker has decided that the sealed component here had an internal fault, this causing it to fail and overheat, starting a slow burning fire.
A part of the full Fisker statement on the subject included how the recall will take place and how the owner of the vehicle involved in the incident has responded as well.
Fisker has already contacted its retailer network. Customers are expected to be contacted by retailers, ahead of their receiving formal notice from the company by mail, to have the cooling fan replaced with a unit that meets the required specifications. At the same time an additional fuse will be installed for added protection.
In their investigation, independent experts established that the incident was not caused by the Lithium-ion battery pack, new technology components, engine component packaging or unique exhaust routing of the Fisker Karma.
“We are committed to responding swiftly and decisively to events such as this to ensure total customer satisfaction,” says Executive Chairman and Co-Founder, Henrik Fisker. “This incident resulted from a single, faulty component, not our unique EVer powertrain or the engineering of the Karma. As this situation demonstrates, Fisker Automotive is dedicated to doing whatever is necessary to address safety and quality
concerns.”The owner of the car involved in the Woodside incident, Mr. Rudy Burger commented: “I have been incredibly impressed with the way Fisker has handled this incident. I have personally started seven technology companies and know from direct experience that the US needs more innovative companies of this type, especially in the automobile sector.
“Fisker is a great company and one that I am personally planning to invest in. I look forward to getting behind the wheel of my next Fisker.”
Check out our timeline below to see recent information on this subject as well as our Fisker portal to keep up to date on all things related to the next-generation automobile company.
Fisker lends official statement to Karma fire is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Recall Fisker’s latest fiery episode last week that left the front left quarter panel of a Karma hybrid EV burnt to a crisp in a Woodside, California parking lot? As promised, the company has completed its investigation with Pacific Rim Investigative Services Group into the scene, reporting that it’s “located the ignition source to the left front of the Karma, forward of the wheel, where the low temperature cooling fan is located.” As such, Fisker has decided to issue a full-on recall of the unit, although it’s currently unclear if this and it affects all Karmas on the road. That said, Fisker is also stressing “that the incident was not caused by the Lithium-ion battery pack, new technology components, engine component packaging or unique exhaust routing of the Fisker Karma” — naturally, the usual suspects for these types of accidents that keep plaguing the fledgling automaker. At least its new CEO Tony Posawatz is extremely qualified to handle the task at hand — after all, a few weeks ago he was Volt-maker, GM’s, Vehicle Line Director. Hit up the press release after the break for details about the investigation and its findings.
Update: When asked about whether the recall affects all Karma models currently on the road, a representative simply (and promptly) replied to us stating, “yes” — well then.
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Fisker completes investigation of latest Karma hybrid EV fire, issues vehicle-wide cooling fan recall originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Aug 2012 15:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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