Tag Archives: Fisker Karma

Automobiles

Each Karma 'cost' Fisker $660,000 to produce

Leave a comment

By Danny King

Filed under: , ,

Looks like the $100,000 or so Leo and Bieber plunked down for their Fisker Karma extended-range plug-in vehicles may have been a bargain. The California-based automaker, which appears to be headed for bankruptcy, spent an estimated $660,000 for every one of fewer than 2,500 vehicles it made during its short production history, research firm PrivCo says in a new study. That doesn’t mean each Karma actually cost $660,000 to make, just that all the money spent by Fisker, divided by the number of cars produced, result in that number.

PrivCo has put together a detailed timeline of Fisker’s money gains and losses, and you can see the gory details here. PrivCo CEO Sam Hamadeh, in an April 17 statement, called Fisker “the largest venture capital-backed debacle in U.S. history.” In addition to the $193 million the company drew down from its $529 million credit line with the government, the company raised about $1.2 billion.

The company recently furloughed its US workers and has brought on an advisor for a potential bankruptcy. And last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Fisker will also be subject of a hearing from House Republicans, who will likely have a field day with PrivCo’s report. Add this to the news that Fisker continued to use funds from its US Department of Energy loan after it had violated terms of the loan multiple times, and you can see how Congress members who’ve been bashing green-energy loans the federal government‘s been doling out are looking forward to the April 24 hearing.

Each Karma ‘cost’ Fisker $660,000 to produce originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

From: http://feeds.autoblog.com/~r/weblogsinc/autoblog/~3/jAIxsVmQj8M/

News, Politics, Government

U.S. Electric Automaker Fisker's Founder Quits After DoE Freezes Loan And Reported Talks With China's Geely

Leave a comment

By Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes Staff

The design guru behind Fisker Automotive, maker of the sleek electric Fisker Karma sports sedan, announced he was stepping down on Wednesday due to “major disagreements” with the company’s executive management, according to several reports.  Fisker Automotive had seen the Department of Energy freeze a special green-energy loan and was considering selling a majority stake to Chinese automaker Geely Automobile, in order to secure funds to develop its second vehicle, the Fisker Atlantic. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Tesla Just Raised the Bar

Leave a comment

By Rich Duprey, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Offering earnings guidance above expectations, whether from Wall Street analysts or internal estimates, is obviously a bullish sign, as over time earnings growth follows sales growth. And when a company predicts greater sales or profits, we expect its stock price to soon follow.

Electric luxury car maker Tesla surprised Wall Street with a steeper-than-expected loss of almost $400 million in 2012 but also said it expected to be “slightly profitable” come the first quarter of the new fiscal year, which is several quarters ahead of expectations. And even in the face of a damaging and very public tiff with The New York Times, a row that it said probably cost it about $100 million in sales and resulted in hundreds of canceled orders, at least one analyst still believes the carmaker is ready to put the pedal to the metal.

Now don’t go blindly buying — or selling — on this bullish sentiment because you still need to do some research. Even if it looks like the situation is improving, we can only use the announcement as a jumping-off point for additional research.

Driving ahead
It’s not just Tesla’s Model S that’s lost its charge since the Times brouhaha began. The carmaker’s stock is also down more than 12% from the high of $40 per share it hit at the beginning of the month. CEO Elon Musk may have violated one of those cardinal rules of politics that says, “Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.”

It’s understandable Musk would want to defend his car from what was seen as an unfair critique, but launching a Twitter war that called the road test a “fake” and using a high-profile blog post to attack the credibility of the Times correspondent only allowed the writer to write yet another article going into greater depth about what went wrong and that caused all the media to focus their attention on the issue. The Times then had its public editor dissect the matter yet again, and all that it’s done is have investors shy away from the stock.

A thin skin is causing Musk’s company to bleed while risking making Tesla out to be a riskier investment than previously believed.

Unplugged
As readers may know, I’m not a big fan of electric cars, though I find Tesla’s Model S and the similarly luxurious Fisker Karma to be gorgeous works of art in addition to being modes of transportation. But my concern is the EV hasn’t yet arrived for the mass market because they haven’t become practical yet. Without subsidies, they’re generally overpriced for the range they deliver, and until there are as many charging stations as there are Starbucks coffee shops, they’ll remain a niche toy of the well off.

Plug-in car sales in the U.S. tumbled 23% in January from the month before, with General Motors‘ Volt plunging 57%, followed closely by plummeting sales of the Nissan Leaf, which had …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Automobiles

ETC: Wrap your car in the loving and tender embrace of velvet

Leave a comment

By Seyth Miersma

Filed under:

In case you hadn’t noticed, car wrapping has gotten more popular and more common in recent years. At this year’s SEMA show, in particular, it was difficult to walk ten feet without seeing some custom wrap job or another. With matte palettes, metallic finishes and famous racing liveries so thick on the ground then, it was probably only a matter of time before we got to velvet. Call up Barry and Levon, baby – velvet is here.

The strategically named Velvet Cars is now offering partial and full body wraps, in 15 different shades of velvet, for your own personal dream car. The company will help you find a certified car wrapper in your area, who can follow up with a quote. For the DIY wrapping enthusiast (and velvet-fondling bon vivant), the company will also sell you the wrapping material itself; the 25-yard, full car wrap runs $1,500.

It’s hard to say what this stuff looks like in real life, and we can’t imagine that it wears particularly well, but the demo Fisker Karma sure does look huggably soft to us. Stay tuned for next year’s SEMA show, where we fully expect a Scion xB to serve as a canvas for Velvet Car Dogs Playing Pool, and velvety renditions of Elvis.

Wrap your car in the loving and tender embrace of velvet originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 23 Feb 2013 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

Automobiles

Quick Spin: 2014 Mazda6 Skyactiv-D Wagon

Leave a comment

By Matt Davis

2014 Mazda6 Skyactiv-D Wagon - profile view

Filed under:

This was sort of a quirky surprise drive opportunity. I’ve been over here in Italy for a while now, and Mazda Italia contacted me seemingly out of the blue to drive test some version of the Mazda6 with a diesel engine. Supremo. The Mazda6 is a sexy everyday beast and I have been digging their SkyActiv-D engines for a while now. Very spirited units.

My contact phones me the day of, and says he can come by with the car, and then we’ll head off to some sort of special spot for dynamics testing and technical conversation. Nice deal, say I.

My guy Ernesto pulls up outside of the house and – lo and behold – it’s a dang Mazda6 station wagon with the very most recent 2.2-liter SkyActiv-D motor good for 148 horsepower and healthy 280 pound-feet of torque. The wee four-banger with 14.0:1 compression ratio hauls this 3,260-pound wagon around with the best of them. A decent 0-to-60-mph time of 8.7 seconds, too.

Best touch? This one had the standard six-speed manual gearbox. We at Autoblog know how we bend a few noses the wrong way with our open cravings for exactly this sort of un-American car setup. But, oh my, did we have a good day together.

Driving Notes

  • First off, the Mazda6 sedan we just tested is a fine-looking conveyance. But if you like wagons like I do, this 2013 Mazda6 wagon is even finer. To my eyes, it doesn’t overdo it like some Infiniti models or the Nissan Juke, and any references to the swoopy Fisker Karma soon fade away. Mazda’s “Kodo” (“Soul of Motion”) design approach just works.
  • I was so geeked that this was a wagon. And the six-speed manual mated with the SkyActiv-D engine just took it over the top. Before hopping in, I noticed the optional set of really nice 19-inch wheels wrapped in Bridgestone Turanza T001 treads, the latest vintage of this fine rubber.
  • Ernesto tells me that I am the very first in all of Italy to drive this engine trim outside of the company testers. “What about the Italian journos?,” I ask. He smiles and shrugs, meaning, “Too bad for them, I guess.”
  • This revvy and strong 2.2-liter turbodiesel is not the 173-hp tune that arrives in the U.S. later this year in the sedan, but it would do just fine on American roads. If the hp bump seems modest on the trim we’ll get, well, the torque bump is also a mild 30 lb-ft. Acceleration to 60 mph will be only a half-second quicker and fuel use will increase, though it will still be good at about 30 miles per gallon city and 40 mpg highway.
  • We pulled up outside of a go-kart track I know out in the middle of the northern Italian flatlands. Ernesto tells me this is the place. Seriously? Yes, seriously. Ever whipped a front-wheel-drive family wagon with manual …read more
    Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog
Automobiles

Tracing the Roots of the VL Automotive Destino

Leave a comment

By Kevin Wilson

The penny dropped when we spotted Henry Iovino and he asked, “how did you like my car?” We were at the coat check at Detroit’s Cobo Hall, preparing to leave the auto show without a real answer to our primary question about the Corvette-powered, Fisker Karma–based VL Destino: How did that happen?

Partners in the venture, industrialist Gilbert Villarreal and GM retiree Bob Lutz (hence VL), had just explained their plan at a press conference. The scrum of daily reporters still surrounded Lutz, listening to him explain—yet again—that such a car doesn’t violate the principles behind either the Chevy Volt he’d promoted nor the Karma itself because (surprise!) the principle behind selling cars is to build what customers want. Some want granola on yogurt, some want triple-chocolate torte, and guess who pays more for a luxury confection?

That doesn’t answer our question, though. Closer was Villarreal’s assertion that an engineer had suggested the idea over dinner—ersatz Mexican fare—last summer while discussing the bankruptcy of battery-maker A123. That engineer would be Iovino.

“I said, ‘what he ought to do is just drop a ZR1 engine in it,’ and it went from there.”

In the late 1990s, Iovino was a Corvette engineer who partnered with C5 designer John Cafaro under the name Skunk Werkes in a side venture to build what GM wouldn’t: a convertible 2001 Corvette Z06. With a vastly upgraded interior, a folding top built by ASC, and a cut-down windscreen for a speedster-look, the car had appeal but was pricey and the business didn’t fly.

A half-decade later, amid massive layoffs at GM, Iovino found himself on the outside looking in, so he started picking up jobs as a contract engineer. We ran into him in 2008 in Pontiac, Michigan, working in a shop where Fisker developed the Karma. In 2012, he was doing similar work for Villarreal on a proposed electric delivery van (with batteries from A123),  making Iovino the answer to, “how did that happen?”

“I knew the Karma really well, and, of course, Corvettes,” Iovino said. When A123 went belly-up, a notion he’d harbored for years that the Karma would be a really cool luxury car if only it wasn’t a hybrid, found natural voice. “I call it the Bad Karma.”

Villarreal ran with the idea, tapping Lutz (already a partner in a luxury watch venture) to open doors with Fisker and GM, and Iovino went to work. “By the time it came together, building these two cars was a 60-day program. The power bulge on the hood is obvious but we also had to redesign the tail because the Karma doesn’t have exhaust back there, it exits up front.” Lutz penned a new signature grille that answers Fisker’s requirement that the new car look different from the Karma.

Replacing the 2.5-liter four-banger with a V-8 was easy, but the four-cylinder was just a generator so Iovino had to put a driveshaft in the center tunnel where the batteries usually live, and a Corvette transaxle in back where the Fisker has electric motors.

“It’s instantly 1100-pounds lighter; I think we can get more weight out because of structure that’s only there to carry the mass.”

Iovino cut down the springs to get the ride height right for the two show cars. “We’ll have to recalibrate it all, get the spring rates and shocks right for the weight and the different distribution.”

There’s no telling yet how many people will pony up a projected $180,000 to $200,000 for a Destino, but Iovino expects it will be more than the four who bought his Skunk Werkes Z06.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Car & Driver

News, Politics, Government

Why I'm 'Desecrating' Fisker's Beautiful Electric Sedan With A Brawny Gasoline Engine

Leave a comment

By Bob Lutz, Contributor I take great pride in my role in the development of the Chevrolet Volt, one of the most-awarded cars in automotive history, and I’ve long predicted that electric vehicles will come to dominate the auto market. So some people might be surprised at my latest venture: retrofitting the plug-in hybrid Fisker Karma with a powerful internal combustion engine.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Automobiles

<i>Consumer Reports</i> buys Tesla Model S. Yes, we're jealous

Leave a comment

By Danny King

Filed under: ,

Lucky them. That’s our opinion of Consumer Reports, which really took one for the team by taking delivery of its Tesla Model S last week. The organization is noted for purchasing most of the vehicles it tests rather than reviewing ones loaned to them by manufacturers.

The institute groused about waiting for more than two years after paying its $5,000 deposit to receive the goods. While the car’s base price is $57,400, Consumer Reports managed to jack that up to an $89,650 tab by opting for the largest 85-kwh battery pack (good for a 265-mile single-charge range) as well as leather interior, air suspension and other goodies. The publication also complimented Tesla for making the purchase possible without a dealer visit – the car, which won 2012 Car of the Year golden calipers from Motor Trend, was ultimately delivered on a flatbed.

Of course, it remains to be seen how Consumer Reports rates the Model S. CR is a tough judge, and the publication notably bought a Fisker Karma extended-range plug-in hybrid last year, only to have it die with less than 200 miles on it. Naturally, that led to a rather harsh assessment of the $107,000 model. We’re hoping – and predicting – the Tesla will fare a lot better.

Continue reading Consumer Reports buys Tesla Model S. Yes, we’re jealous

Consumer Reports buys Tesla Model S. Yes, we’re jealous originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

Automobiles

Bob Lutz: Destino is the Fisker Karma people will actually want

Leave a comment

By Sebastian Blanco

Filed under: ,

vl automotive destino

Bob Lutz has had grandiose performance luxury car dreams before – Cunningham C7, anyone? – but the VL Automotive Destino that was just unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show was certainly a surprise, even to long-time Lutz-watchers. As a reminder, the Destino is a Fisker Karma with a 638-horsepower supercharged LS9 V8 transplanted from a Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. Plug? Gone. High-tech lithium-ion battery? Sold back to Fisker.

“I just heard so many people say, I love the Fisker Karma but I’m not going to buy it because I don’t want that electric drivetrain.”

For now, the Destino project remains small. Bob Lutz tells AutoblogGreen that VL Automotive has so far purchased eight Karmas, and two have been turned into finished engineering prototypes. Fisker says a total of 20 have been ordered. Still, Lutz believes this is a car with an audience. “I just heard so many people say, I love the Fisker Karma but I’m not going to buy it because I don’t want that electric drivetrain with the four-cylinder engine,” he said. “So, when you think about it, for a car in that category, here’s this ultra-luxurious, super-low, super-sporty, beautifully designed four-door sedan. Probably ten percent of the possible customers want that in an electric form with a four-cylinder.”

To satisfy the other 90 percent Lutz envisions, VL Automotive buys the Karmas and then removes the battery pack (carefully setting it aside) at VL Automotive’s headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan – not far from Lutz’s old job at Chrysler. “We were able to run the driveshaft right down the battery tunnel and we had to make a modification where the battery tunnel ends and the rear firewall starts, because the Corvette transaxle intruded somewhat, so we had to make a little aluminum doghouse that’s welded to the vertical rear panel,” Lutz told us. “They had a gas tank, but there’s all this room left over.” In the future, the conversions will be even easier, since VL will buy glider chassis direct from Valmet, in Finland, Lutz said.

From Fisker’s point of view, buying the Karmas whole is actually a good thing, Lutz believes. “[Fisker] has had incredible hard luck,” he said, “And with the battery supplier not producing batteries, they’re actually glad if we buy new ones and ship the batteries and the electrical back to them for a credit – that permits them to build more cars.”

That’s a nice, symbiotic relationship, but Roger Ormisher, Fisker’s senior director of global corporate communications & PR, confirmed to AutoblogGreen that this project is not a joint partnership or strategic alliance. He added:

Fisker believes that it [Destino] speaks to the appeal of the Karma and its stunning, award-winning design that coachbuilders are wanting to take our cars and modify and customize them. We join many famous brands in automotive history that have been the subject of customization and modification.

When the Destino becomes available, the price is expected to be around $180,000.

Bob Lutz: Destino is the Fisker Karma people will actually want originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Fri, 18 Jan 2013 11:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

Automobiles

Fisker Karma production stoppage reaches 6 months, company claims "sufficient supply"

Leave a comment

By Sebastian Blanco

Filed under: , , ,

fisker karma gijs spierings

One result of the litany of problems that Fisker Automotive suffered in 2012 – floods, fires and recalls – was a production stoppage of the plug-in hybrid Karma that has already lasted six months. Fisker spokesman Roger Ormisher told AutoblogGreen that the delay was due to an attempt to renegotiate the Valmet production contract and A123 Systems‘s bankruptcy proceedings.

He said:

Valmet traditionally shuts down for Scandinavian summer break from mid July to mid August. When they returned, our new management team wanted to renegotiate the contract with them and during this period, A123 started to enter bankruptcy. We took the prudent decision to conserve our battery stock and we already have sufficient supply of Karmas through Q1 of this year. By that time we hope to have renegotiated our battery supply with A123’s new owners Wanxiang.

Despite that conservation of batteries, the truth is that Fisker isn’t getting new batteries from A123 right now. One interesting side effect of the Destino project, Bob Lutz told AutoblogGreen, is that Fisker could get some battery packs back when they are taken out of already-built Karmas and, one day, put them into new vehicles. In August, Henrik Fisker said that Fisker had build “about 1,900” Karmas. Apparently, that’s a comfortable enough margin, for now.

Fisker Karma production stoppage reaches 6 months, company claims “sufficient supply” originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Thu, 17 Jan 2013 18:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

Automobiles

Destiny’s Child: VL Automotive Debuts the Karma-Based Destino [2013 Detroit Auto Show]

Leave a comment

By Andrew Wendler

VL Automotive Destino

Retirement means different things to different people; for auto-industry superhero Bob Lutz it means business as usual, keeping in the mix with not one, but two automotive startups. But as where VIA motors is taking GM trucks and vans and electrifying them for fleet customers, VL Automotive is taking Fisker Karma hybrids and transforming them to run on fossil-fueled GM horsepower.

Never one to waste time or mince words, Lutz has joined forces with Gilbert Villarreal, president of Auburn Hills–based automotive supplier the Concorde Group, to form VL Automotive. Together, they aim to “build an American-made sports sedan with advanced aesthetics that can beat the best from Italy and Germany while maintaining a high level of reliability.” (Last we checked the Fisker Karma body was assembled in Finland, so unless they’re secretly planning to assemble the bodies here, they may need to amend the “American-made” part.) If all goes according to the dynamic duo’s plan, restyled Fisker Karmas with a GM-sourced V-8 under the hood will be rolling off the line of their assembly plant by late 2013.

VL Automotive Destino supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 engine

Dubbed the Destino, VL Automotive has made a few cosmetic changes to the Karma, the most obvious being a completely new hood, new front and rear fasciae, a new decklid spoiler, and the replacement of the solar panel roof with a traditional piece. Not only do the changes improve the car’s visual appeal, but, according to company spokesman Tom Sundberg, also were required to meet the exclusive contract VL Automotive hammered out with Fisker.

The conversion uses the entire Corvette powertrain: Available with a choice in V-8 powerplats—the 6.2-liter LT1 or the supercharged 6.2-liter LS9—coupled to a rear transaxle via a torque-tube setup, the Destino utilizes some of the newfound, battery-vacated space to house an entirely new rear subframe assembly (required to support the transaxle). The LT1-powered car is rated at 450 horsepower and the LS9-motivated Destino at 638 horsepower; transmission options are limited to a four-speed automatic or a six-speed manual. “When we get it dialed in, we’d like to be able to say it’s a 200-mph supercar,” said Sundberg.

Don Runkle, current EcoMotors CEO and former chief engineer for Chevrolet, who was on hand for VL’s press conference in Detroit offered C/D a few succinct words regarding the recent efforts of Lutz and Co.: “When I was at GM, we always asked ourselves, ‘Should we build a four-door Corvette?’ To me, that’s what it looks like they’ve done. And it’s got the right-size battery for a high-performance car, which is zero.”

VL Automotive Destino

The two cars on display in Detroit are the first examples assembled from the first eight Karmas purchased by VL (the remaining vehicles are being used for development and marketing purposes). VL figures the first 20 or so will be built from decontented Karmas, but is in the process of negotiating terms for a supply of gliders—Karmas with no powertrain installed—direct from Fisker. This must be music to the ears of Fisker, who halted production last fall because of the bankruptcy of its battery supplier.

Pricing, as you might expect, is yet to be announced although we’re hearing that it will cost somewhere around the $180,000 range. One of the vehicles VL placed on its stand already has been sold to the owner of an unnamed company that is supplying VL Automotive with components for the Destino.

Destino essentially means “destiny” in Spanish, and as far as VL is concerned, it’s inevitable that a car as stunning as the Karma would eventually have a powertrain that can back up its looks. Sounds like fate to us.

VL Automotive Destino

2013 Detroit Auto Show full coverage

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Car & Driver

Automobiles

Detroit: Bob Lutz brings Destino, a ZR1-powered Karma, to Detroit

Leave a comment

By Jeremy Korzeniewski

Filed under: , , ,

There’s nothing wrong with the Fisker Karma that a honkin’ American V8 engine won’t fix. At least according to Bob Lutz, it seems. Called the Destino, this machine is the brainchild of industrialist Gilbert Villereal and the aforementioned Lutz, and is intended to compete with such well-regarded performance sedans as the Porsche Panamera and Aston Martin Rapide.

As you can see, there are some significant styling changes made in the conversion from Karma to Destino, notably in the front and rear fascias, including exhaust tips out back and a new hood that’s raised to accommodate what lies underneath. The interior is also reskinned and can be customized by the buyer.

But it’s the engineering work under that shapely skin that’s truly noteworthy. Replacing the electric motor, battery pack and turbocharged range extender is one 638-horsepower supercharged LS9 V8 borrowed from the Corvette ZR1 driving the rear wheels through either a manual or automatic transmission. Power numbers are identical to the ZR1 and while fuel economy is not yet known, we can expect is to be a bit lower than the Corvette’s 15 city / 24 highway.

The Destino will be built at VL Automotive’s headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan, and will be delivered through an in-development distribution network starting this summer. Pricing is expected to be around $180,000, which is significantly more than the Karma’s $102,000 base price. Check out our high-res image gallery live from the Detroit Auto Show above and the press release below.

Continue reading Bob Lutz brings Destino, a ZR1-powered Karma, to Detroit

Bob Lutz brings Destino, a ZR1-powered Karma, to Detroit originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 14 Jan 2013 10:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog