Electric Car Start-Up, Fisker, Opens Huge Center in Michigan
At least one of the highly touted alternative car start-ups is expanding in the face of an economic meltdown.
Fisker Automotive yesterday announced (PDF) the opening of a 34,000 square foot Engineering and Development Center in Pontiac, Michigan, that will house up to 200 engineers and designers in support of Fisker’s much anticipated plug-in hybrid car, the four-door Fisker Karma.
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Amid news of Tesla Motors’ (the other much-ballyhooed electric car start-up) recent “shrinkage,” Fisker seems to be flaunting its success. As the press release makes sure to point out, “The opening of [their new] facility comes on the heels of Fisker Automotive’s recent announcement that it prevailed in a lawsuit brought against the company by Tesla Motors.”
The bad blood between Tesla and Fisker goes back a ways. In April, Tesla sued Fisker Automotive claiming that Henrik Fisker took on an $875,000 design contract with Tesla in order to access confidential design information. Less than a year after his contract ended, Fisker launched his own company and announced the Karma. In June, Fisker won the suit in binding arbitration.
So it seems that, for now, Fisker is on a roll, while Tesla is starting to lose its steam. Last September, Fisker announced that they had raised $65 million dollars in a large round of funding while, just a month later, Tesla was forced to lay off employees and scale back operations due to inadequate funding.
Fisker is set to release the Karma at the end of next year. Allegedly, the Karma has a 50 mile all-electric range and more than 350 miles of total range. Fisker claims that the Karma “will have the potential for a fuel economy of over 100 miles per gallon on extended drives.” The car is expected to cost around $80,000 — which is $29,000 less than Tesla’s Roadster — and Fisker plans on selling 15,000 of them annually by 2011.
Source and Image Credit: Fisker Automotive
I have to say - the Fisker Karma is a truly James Bond-worthy automobile. It is one sexy car! I also like the Lightning electric car, made in the UK - we posted about it on my blog:
http://www.zoomilife.com/2008/10/30/teslas-lightning-competition/
I truly hope we start seeing more companies release innovative electric car products. What we really need is an inexpensive 4 door sedan - Tesla’s pitching their model S but I’d really like to see another company enter the fray.
$80,000 per car? That is nuts. Absolutely crazy. Over five years, one would have to use $30 of fuel per day in their regular car, stay less than 50 miles per day in the Fisker car and never have a battery failure in order to come out even… assuming a normal car would cost $25,000.
They’ve got to work on the price point or the investors who kicked in their $65 million are going to lose their butts. Who would invest in something that has no chance of selling except as a novelty?
I agree Nick. When are these people going to realize that the only way to make the EV industry viable is to produce cars the “average” American can afford. Are there really enough eco-celebrities to keep this company afloat?
I partially agree with both Nick and Doug above. But, I also think that there’s a place for expensive luxury electric cars as well. Actually, even with all of Tesla’s woes, they are still selling cars… even if they’re novelties for the rich. Both Fisker and Tesla have taken the business approach of starting high and eventually building cars that “everybody” can afford, Whereas companies like Aptera and Think are starting with the “everyman” car and building from there. I don’t know which strategy will prove most successful.
This, to me, is what makes the Chevy Volt so much more important than these high-priced toys. I don’t doubt that there will be people who want the Tesla and the Fisker (mostly rich people), but those cars are not going to do anything real for the U.S. energy situation unless they get into the hands of a significant number of the driving population. The Volt (and other major manufacturers’ offerings like the Prius Plug-in and the Nissan
Altima plug-in hybrid) will do that precisely because they’ll be more affordable.
It may be useful to remember that Tesla is delivering the cars to customers now, whereas Fisker doesn’t. Who knows what is going to happen when Fisker gets where Tesla is now. My money is on a buy-out by an established manufacturer.
The more the merrier, with Tesla building from the top (and Fisker coming soon) and GM, Mitsu, Chrysler and Toyota coming soon from the middle to high-middle, hopefully we will have some real options for PHEV’s, EREV’s and BEV’s within a few years. We will definitely need them.
GM claims Volt will sell in the high $30’s so subtract the tax break of $7,000 and you end up with a car around $31k or $32k. Not completely making sense monetarily but being able to use American electricity instead of foreign oil means a lot to me, and I can make my own electricity, I can’t make my own oil.
That having been said, Honda’s new insight with 60 mpg and selling for less than $19,000 will make a lot more sense financially. 60+ mpg means they will use 200 gallons of gasoline a year, most of us use 600-750 gallons. Now THAT is a horse of a different color! It really puts pressure on the BEV and EREV builders to build an inexpensive car sooner rather than later.
Trust me, there’s at a market for these things in LA. When I see a Veyron tooling down my little side street and a Maserati Quattroporte isn’t even garaged, anything is possible. Whether it makes any objective sense or not is another question.
Fer chrissake, will you folks prattling about the cost of the thing give half an ounce of thought to what it costs to BUILD the thing? This is a fairly conventionally-sized vehicle with a substantial carrying capacity, unlike say an Aptera or even a Tesla roadster.
Batteries are expensive. VERY expensive. Far more expensive than anything that goes into a pure ICE-powered car. The more battery range you want, the more it’s going to cost. And most of those batteries come from China, so there goes the balance-of-payments again.
Starting a new car company costs money. And I’m inclined to think Fisker is serious, and he’s got a fairly substantial track record. Having worked for Elon Musk at one point in a non-automotive environment, I have great sympathy for those folks at Tesla actually trying to get product out the door.
Tesla and Tes–er, FISKER, sorry, they won the lawsuit and all–anyway, those two have the right idea.
The average consumer will consider economy when buying a car–and if fuel prices stay where they are, then gas-burners beat electric. Even the Insight is still too high–a comparable gas-burner is ten thousand dollars less.
For the next few years, electric cars will be rich mens’ toys; which means that you might as well price (and build) for the rich mens’ market.
“Oh, but what about the Aptera?” Ha. First off, it’s about as crashworthy as a Fiero. Second, door-dings will require vehicle replacement; there’s no way to “fix” a monocoque composite structure.
PS. Hey Fisker, Jaguar called, they want their XK8 back.