Fisker Karma

TEG said:

How about a pressure sensitive horn... The harder you push the louder it gets?

Click to expand...

It's a good idea and it could work, but for safety features like a horn I think it should be as simple as possible when it comes to operation.

I seem to remember the Lightning Car Company (Welcome to Lightning Car Company - The UK's Premier Electric Sports Car) in the first version of their website "offering" external speakers to make ICE noises on their supposed EV as well.

Cobos said:

I still think PV on the roof does make a bit of sense. But only to drive the AC within the car/battery during hot summers days when that problem is important. That way you can probably sit parked somewhere in the sun and keep the temperature at decent level inside the car and not have to "turn on the engine" as you would with a dinocar (well use the main battery in this case but you get my point).

Click to expand...

PVs on the roof are a great feature. I know they have something in the area of 30% efficiency and perhaps someone could shed more light on this but in an EV application would it be able to collect enough energy to regulate the temperature of the battery pack on those hot sunny days (when parked)?

Albern said:

I seem to remember the Lightning Car Company "offering" external speakers to make ICE noises on their supposed EV as well.

Click to expand...

Welcome to Lightning Car Company - The UK's Premier Electric Sports Car

Lightning GT - Standard Features

• Anti lock braking system
• Traction control
• Regenerative braking
• Electronic door entry
• Programmable external engine sound generator
• Central door locking
• Alarm and immobilizer
• Electric windows
• Acoustic information and entertainment system
• Part leather/alcantara sports seats
• Forged alloy wheels
• Tinted windows
• Home based charging system (EVCS) with integral safety features
• Hella focused beam halogen headlamps
• LED taillights, front, rear and side-mounted lights

OMG! They put it on the official feature list!!

Why don't these people seem to believe in a) their own product and b) the intelligence of the public?

Valmet to manufacture Fisker Karma - Autoblog

50 miles electric only
Overall range 350 miles
Top speed of 125 mph
0-60 time of about 5.8 seconds.

My previous experience with Valmet was as a manufacturer of AKM assault rifle clones. I never knew they made cars.

Looks like the Fisker Karma might beat the Tesla Model S to market... That wouldn't be good for TM.

tonybelding said:

My previous experience with Valmet was as a manufacturer of AKM assault rifle clones. I never knew they made cars.

Click to expand...

Sounds like "bad Karma" to make cars at a gun factory.

Chris H. said:

Looks like the Fisker Karma might beat the Tesla Model S to market... That wouldn't be good for TM.

Click to expand...

Potentially not good, true. But even if the Karma is delayed and the Model S comes before it they are going to be close enough that it will serve as close competition for each other. It would be nice to start hearing more solid details about both the Model S and the Karma, soon.

graham said:

Potentially not good, true. But even if the Karma is delayed and the Model S comes before it they are going to be close enough that it will serve as close competition for each other. It would be nice to start hearing more solid details about both the Model S and the Karma, soon.

Click to expand...

The Karma will be a plug-in hybrid. The Model S, we now know, will only be available as a purely electric car. So. . . Even though they will be competing, it seems like the distinctions between them should be pretty clear.

tonybelding said:

The Karma will be a plug-in hybrid. The Model S, we now know, will only be available as a purely electric car. So. . . Even though they will be competing, it seems like the distinctions between them should be pretty clear.

Click to expand...

That's a good point. TM seems to have hinted the Model S would be a BEV, then a E-REV, then a BEV again. It'll be difficult to argue in court (or arbitration) that Fisker infringed on TM's IP when the substance of the vehicles are so different. And yes, I understand the components can be similar; but let's face it, these are very different vehicles.

The other thing is Fisker hasn't had to deal with the growing pains of production. Tesla clearly has the experience with the Roadster... Of course Fisker may be wise in outsourcing it. As for Valment, someone posted on one of these sites they manufactured Saab vehicles. I'm not sure if that's true.

tonybelding said:

The Karma will be a plug-in hybrid. The Model S, we now know, will only be available as a purely electric car. So. . . Even though they will be competing, it seems like the distinctions between them should be pretty clear.

Click to expand...

True, it is not like anyone will confuse the 2 cars. And in a healthy market, they probably wouldn't be considered even in the same category.

But since the category of plug-in EV is so very small, they will definitely be compared to each other. I can't imagine someone in the market for one not at least glancing at the other.

It is something the Roadster has had the luxury of not having. If you want a plug-in car that does highway speeds, has passed NTSB standards and doesn't look terrible - you have a choice of 1. So people who are interested in plug-in cars who might never be interested in a super-high-end sports car are interested in Tesla. If the Roadster were more delayed and the Volt quicker to market, they would probably be compared against each other, as ludicrous as that would seem if they both were standard ICE cars. The Model S and the Karma are much closer to each others target market than that.

I'm not sure how this is with you, but for me the suggested price is a major differencing factor actually. The S will be just above what I would normalluy consider sane for a car purchase for me. The Karma is so much above it's no use dreaming. A bit like the Roadster in that regard. A car purchase shouldn't have a higher purchase price than yearly household income I beleive Especially not when there is a mortgage and student loans on top off that.

Cobos

Has anyone considered that in the second MY for the Karma, Fisker may offer a pure BEV option?

Irvine, Calif.-based Fisker Automotive is going to Finland for the production of its first plug-in hybrid, announcing today that Valmet Automotive, which makes Porsche's Boxter and Cayman models, will produce the Karma sedan beginning in the fourth quarter of 2009.



Oh yeah, Fisker has taken approx. 1,000 orders for the Karma.

Cleantech cars advance as old guard stumbles | Cleantech Group

Hey Guys,

Has anyone else on here considered / placed an order on the Karma? Based on my driving needs I would prefer a series hybrid option over a BEV. I liked the idea of being able to draw on two energy sources that already has a significant infrastructure in place and is practically "ubiquitous".

Although Model S is not completely out of the picture for me, if it cannot satisfy my needs I guess I'm left with either the Karma or the Volt. Given Fisker's lack of experience in after -sales service, technological / engineering know-how (in automotive applications such as drivetrains), and their history with Tesla would anyone consider the Karma as good alternative?

vfx said:

Count my wife as one of those.
It's "only" $1K to hold a spot. She dearly loves her Saab but she recently crossed the 100K mark and will be shopping soon.

It's a bit disconcerting that there is a chance we will loose the money if the company goes under and the price of all (Model S, Volt, Karma) these cars is high for us but the prices keep going up so we look at it as some sort of investment.

Click to expand...

Congrats. The small deposit thing worked for the Smart car. I'm more likely to go with the Volt, but it all sort of depends what is available when. It's just nice to see Fisker outsourced production to someone that can obviously handle it.

Just saw an article in a Norwegian car website saying Valmet did not get a renewal for their Porsche contract beyond 2011, which might be the reason they've got capacity to build the Karma. If they are still building Porsches at full speed until 2011 I have a hard time seeing how they will build many Karmas at the same time. Anyone else knows anything about this?

Cobos

Valmet must be capable of operating a flexible assembly operation where they can assemble different vehicles for different customers from the same facilities.