Karma Automotive

We all know how it ended the first time car designer Henrik Fisker started a namesake company. Fisker Automotive went bankrupt in 2012 after taking hundreds of millions in loans from the US government and failing to deliver its plug-in hybrid vehicle in volume reliably.

The company and its battery supplier, A123 Systems, have since been bought by a Chinese conglomerate and relaunched under the name Karma Automotive. We recently reported on the company relaunching Fisker’s flagship vehicle, the Karma, under the new name ‘Revero’.

Now that the company is not using the name ‘Fisker’ anymore, Henrik decided to launch again a namesake company: Fisker, Inc, as well as a battery tech division: ‘Fisker Nanotech’.
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Karma Automotive had an “online unveiling” for its new Revero, a sedan based on the defunct Fisker Karma, yesterday. While the reveal didn’t disclose much in term of specs, company officials have since been talking to the media and they revealed a few new details.

Chief Revenue Officer Jim Taylor said that the Revero should cost a little more than the original Fisker Karma. It should come at just over $115,000.
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It appears there could be a change of pace in Tesla’s interior design team. While we recently reported that the automaker hired the lead designer behind the Porsche Mission E’s interior, we now learn that now two senior designers from Tesla’s interior team have left the company since the beginning of the year and that the latest to leave just joined competitor Karma Automotive this week.

Patrick Grimmel, Senior Interior Designer at Tesla from 2011 to 2016, left the automaker earlier this year to go back to freelancing, and Andre Franco Luis, Lead Interior Designer at Tesla from 2011 to 2016, left last month and now we learn that he joined Karma Automotive, formerly known as Fisker Automotive, as Interior Design Manager.
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Fisker Automotive, which recently rebranded as Karma Automotive, announced today the signing of a supply agreement with BMW for electric and hybrid powertrains.

Earlier this summer, the company moved to Riverside, California to set up a manufacturing facility and is now aiming to re-launch its plug-in hybrid vehicle in 2016.
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Fisker Automotive announced today a name change to Karma Automotive, as well as a new logo (see above). The company was named after its co-founder and famed car designer, Henrik Fisker. Fisker resigned from the company during financial difficulties in 2013. The company filed for bankruptcy soon after. Then the Wanxiang Group, a Chinese auto parts conglomerate, bought the company’s assets out of bankruptcy for $149 million. They also picked up A123, a battery maker who at the time was supplying Fisker with battery packs before both companies went under.

Wanxiang has since been trying to relaunch the company and especially its flagship electric sedan, the Karma, hence the new name of the organisation.
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According to the LA Times, Fisker Automotive inked a deal to lease a 556,000-square-foot industrial building in Riverside County. The 11 year lease is estimated to be worth $30 million and the company is expected to use the facility to manufacture their soon-to-be relaunched flagship vehicle, the electric-hybrid Fisker Karma.
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