I think I'd liken it more to black snake firework. Interest will be lit, there will be some fire and smoke, but what's rising is actually just ash and memories of years past...and it'll stain your walk-way!
They probably shouldn't have, but it's debateable. After Tesla, Fisker was the most qualified "start-up" applicant. Giving them a loan was somewhat political for the DOE too since they needed "someone besides Tesla" and at the time and Fisker was the best bet. You're always going to have winners and losers. Most of the money appropriated for that ATVM program never got awarded.
The main reason why Fisker should never have gotten the loan is because it didn't move the needle at all. The Model S, while a very expensive car, pushed EVs forward. Fisker was a Volt with a nicer interior for the most part.
While I agree with you, most of that benefits from hindsight. The loan supposedly should have helped them move the needle. There was no guarantee Tesla would still be around, and in the grand scheme of things the money Fisker got was a drop in the bucket. They never even got the majority of the funds they were awarded (for good reason).
Fisker is leasing building for manufacturing in Moreno Valley CA: Luxury car maker Fisker to build cars in Southern California - LA Times The article says only 150 employees--they must not plan on manufacturing a lot of cars,
Spotted my first Fisker Karma in the wild this weekend in Indianapolis. Didn't know we had any around the area. That grille is... unmistakable. Saw 3 Model S's on the roads that same day.
hmmm 200 watts. if the car uses 200 wh/mi then am I correct to say that (assuming no loss) each hour of sun exposure will proved the HV battery with enough energy to go 1 mile? So, I could presumably drive the car 1mph on roof energy on a sunny day? Great for slow parades!! I think they should stick with using it to power the 12v infotainment and accessories.
From a more practical perspective, if it harvests a kwh over the course of a day, you can probably drive ~3 miles...which equals a ~10% range improvement over the original Karma's EV range.
The Karma Revero Is a Very Bad Car By Hannah Elliot ... The thing most audacious about the Karma Revero is how it drives. I mean audacious like Florence Foster Jenkins was audacious; I wondered if I was being pranked. ... As for how the Revero feels to drive, well, have you ever crunched sand in your teeth? Accidentally skied over gravel? It feels like that. I sat in traffic with this thing and it might have looked like I was someone learning to drive stick; I actually thought the parking brake was still engaged when I first pushed the gas, it felt so heavy and stilted as I turned the wheel and tried to go. ...
Pretty brutal. The author doesn't come off as particularly objective, but it's hard to disagree with many of her points. My feeling was always that at the very least a revised Karma needed a proper drivetrain that wasn't so kludgey. It needed to have reasonably respectable performance to go with its polarizing looks. So when I saw the Revero some months ago and chatted with a couple of their representatives, I asked what they had changed from the original. The response I got was "anything that has an electric circuit in it." I thought, "Great, they finally got some proper motors in there!" But, no. What that person meant was that they had updated the infotainment system. Now that's important since the touchscreen infotainment system with which Fisker delivered the original Karma was so poorly designed and buggy that it was essentially broken. But it's quite disappointing that this new Karma Automotive didn't appreciably improve the performance or efficiency with the Revero. When I asked about that the response I got was, "The people buying this car aren't interested in high performance." I remain unconvinced.
Before the model S came out in 2012, this type of performance was somewhat acceptable. This car appears to be 6 years late to market. It is large but lacks interior space. It is not particularly green, and the performance is nothing to get excited about.
You can get a 5 Series PHEV, 7 Series PHEV, S-Class PHEV. And of course a Model S 100D for $102k. Or a Model S P100D for the same price as a loaded Karma $140k.
100 total orders, some from Tesla owners. $130,000 car. Time for the engineers to get a big raise by going to work for GM to help out with the next still birth. RIP Karma. RT
I didn't think her review was particularly objective - acutely negative with a specific agenda if you ask me. Say what you will about the overall value and drivetrain but the exterior styling for the most part has garnered significant praise (the original Karma was named one of the most beautiful cars ever). Similarly her attack on the interior leather was equally biased. Do I find the Revero compelling? Eh, not really. And certainly not at a $130K starting price. The market has changed a lot in the 5+ years since I got my first Fisker. Tech has improved and competition has increased substantially. The Revero has not. I still love my two Karmas and they stir that emotion every time I see them in the way that beautiful cars do. I will be using my Model 3 as my daily, but doubt it will evoke the same attachment and affection that my Karmas do.
I guess I felt this way as well. The writing was particularly biting. Perhaps for clicks, perhaps to be entertaining. But I have to agree with two main points. The fact they didn't update/upgrade the drivetrain just seems nuts to me, and the question of who is going to buy this car seems inadequately answered. That article is getting quite a bit of traction and it being recycled through the blogosphere. I wonder how the folks at Karma are reacting. http://jalopnik.com/update-the-karma-is-still-awful-1797563691