Fisker Karma news

[HeilSvenska]

Autocar The first image of the 100mpg plug-in hybrid that former BMW and Aston Martin designer Henrik Fisker is planning for production in 2009 has been released ahead of the car’s Detroit show debut in January 2008. Described as “being the height of a Porsche 911, but with the internal space to fit four adults and their luggage”, the new car is a ground-up new design, according to Fisker Automotive. The swooping, low roof-line and sculpted front wings definitely give Fisker’s design the look of a four-door supercar, with echoes of the Aston Martin Rapide. But it will need brilliant project management, design and engineering skills to get the production model anywhere near the quality promised in this sketch. Even more ambitiously, the design gives a glimpse of the look that should lead to a “range of beautiful, exciting-looking environmental-friendly cars”, says the company. Key performance targets of the sporty four-seater are a 50-mile range on pure electric power and an overall range of 620 miles when the car is used in hybrid mode. Details of the new hybrid’s chassis and powertrain are still secret, although both petrol and diesel hybrids will be offered. The chassis? Fisker Automotive claims that “all cars will have a completely new platform developed from the ground-up”. That will clearly be very expensive and a major technical challenge. For example, getting regulatory approval in crash and emissions tests is enough work to keep teams of dozens of engineers busy at the world’s biggest car-makers for several years. Developing a reliable and durable electrical system and air conditioning/heating system will be another huge challenge, on top of the basic need to get the hybrid powerrtain operating efficiently. Even such basic production engineering processes as making doors fit and lock reliably is time-consuming and expensive – it’s something that Britain’s legion of specialist sports car makers often try to avoid. Yet these details will have to be attended to, because Fisker’s car won’t be cheap at $80,000 (£40,000 at current exchange rates). Despite such practical realities, Fisker Automotive says the four-seat hybrid will go on sale in “the fourth quarter of 2009” – that’s just two years away. Most major car-makers expect to take that sort of time to get a new model to production, often after three to five years of concept engineering. Production is then planned to ramp-up to 15,000 a year by 2011. A second line, of presumably cheaper models, is planned for 2014, the volume then predicted at an astonishing 100,000 per year. Fisker Automotive is a new company set-up as a joint venture by Fisker Coachworks and Quantum Technologies to get the hybrid into production. The ambitious project has just received “initial financing” by Palo Alto Investors, a Californian fund, according to a release from Fisker Automotive.

[Bernardo]

This sketch looks seriously good !
But I guess this car shouldn't be badged as a fisker..they could use BMW or Aston isntead, altho Its a whole new automotive company, I dont see much space for It in the market.

And Fisker its def. a bad name for a car maker...looks like fishing stuff company.

[ferrarif1fan89]

The embargo for the Fisker Karma Luxury Hybrid from coachbuilder Fisker (responsible for questionably revised european luxury models ) was broken two days ago and then unbroken by some concerned PR people and now it appears that AutoBlog.it has broken the embargo again! Molto Bene! The Karma Hybrid will be powered by the Quantum Technologies-sourced Q-DRIVE System (a series hybrid with a small gas engine running to generate power for lithium ion battery packs). This is good for a claimed 0-60 mph time of six seconds and a top speed of 125 mph and a range of 50 miles on batteries alone.

http://jalopnik.com/344310/detroit-a...-luxury-hybrid

Not bad! Definitely the best looking hybrid ever!

[HeilSvenska]

Originally Posted by ferrarif1fan89 Not bad! Definitely the best looking hybrid ever!

Fo sho! That Fisker knows how to design cars with some of the best sheet metal.

[HeilSvenska]

...or a publicity stunt?

Fisker Automotive isn't wasting any time getting its Karma plug-in hybrid on the road. Five months after pulling the wraps off the car at the Detroit auto show, it's flogging a test mule in Southern California. The pictures offer the best evidence yet that Henrik Fisker is serious about getting the $80,000 sedan into showrooms by the end of next year, and they're a shot across the bow of Tesla Motors as the two companies race to bring the first high-performance four-door hybrid to market. Fisker isn't saying anything about what's under the hood of the prototype, but we know the company is working with Quantum Technologies on a series parallel drivetrain that will use an electric motor to drive the wheels and an internal combustion engine to charge the lithium-ion batteries. Autocar says it could be a 1.4 liter Volkswagen engine, but all Henrik Fisker would tell us, through a spokesman, is "the car MAY have a German engine that turns the generator." Clearly the company isn't allowing itself to be distracted by its legal fight with Tesla, which has filed a lawsuit claiming Fisker agreed to design Tesla's WhiteStar sedan, then cribbed from its confidential files to design the Karma. Fisker calls the suit nonsense. We've got more pics from Fisker...

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/05/fisker-karma-pl.html

[10000rpmlover]

that thing looks stunning, is this the guy who designed the DB9?

[HeilSvenska]

^ + V8 Vantage, BMW Z8, and Artega GT

Apparently, Fisker secured $65 million funding recently.

Luxury Sports Car Maker Fisker Raises $65M By Michael Lyster Orange County Business Journal Staff Irvine-based Fisker Automotive Inc., designer of an upscale hybrid sports car, has raised $65 million in one of the largest venture funding rounds seen in the county. Fisker raised the money from an arm of the Qatar Investment Authority, the state-run investment fund of the Arab emirate, as well as prior venture capital investors Palo Alto Investors and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. "We are extremely pleased to have closed our financing round at this time, particularly in light of the current market conditions," said Chief Executive Henrik Fisker, a former Ford Motor Co. designer. The money is set to be used for development of the Fisker Karma, a luxury sports car with a combination electric and gas engine developed by Irvine's Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc. Fisker expects to start production of the car in late 2009 and make about 15,000 of them a year. The latest funding pushes Fisker's total raised to at least $75 million. Terms of its prior funding rounds haven't been disclosed. An investment by Kleiner Perkins in January was reported to be more than $10 million. The company, originally known as Fisker Coachbuild LLC, got early funding from a local, undisclosed real estate moneyman and Damon Shelly, owner of Shelly Automotive Group in Irvine, which has five auto dealerships. The latest round ranks among the largest ever for an Orange County company, equaling what some promising technology startups have raised in several rounds. The biggest local funding in recent memory was last year's $100 million financing of Irvine-based Specific Media Inc., an online advertising startup. Henrik Fisker, who's designed BMWs and Aston Martins, started Fisker Automotive with partner Bernhard Koehler in 2005. They left jobs at Ford Motor Co. to start the company. Last year, Fisker and Quantum Fuel Systems formed Fisker Automotive, a joint venture using Quantum's drive train technology and Fisker's design.