…
Fisker said it was not aware of any consumer complaints, warranty claims or “any other reports related to this condition.” It said fewer than 50 vehicles were in the hands of consumers.
Under federal regulations dealers may not sell the remaining new models until the recall is completed.
Full story at the NYT
======================================================
It’s another example of USA tax dollars at work – in Finland:
From ABC News, Oct 20th, 2011:
With the approval of the Obama administration, an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work.
Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department’s $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the company’s manufacturing jobs are still limited to the assembly of the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car in Finland.
=======================================================
Let’s do the math.
239 cars produced for 2012 model year.
$529,000,000 USD in Government loans
That works out to $2,213,389 (2.2 million) per car.
Selling price $103,000 USD, that leaves only $2,110,389 in taxpayer funded overhead per vehicle. And, they’ve only sold 50 so far.
Such a deal.
Of course, when your promotion strategy revolves around a sitcom based on Charlie Sheen, such things are bound to happen:
Full story at GreenCarReports.com
The 2012 Fisker, the peoples car affordable to Internet billionaires and Hollywood actors, fire extinguisher not included.
Half a billion here, half a billion there, pretty soon we’re talking about dollars and sense.
==============
Actually, I want one. Fire hazard be damned, the local beknighted university is offering free recharges, for now, in a vain attempt to encourage electric car use.
===========
You don’t need fancy marketing surveys to figure out that pure electric cars are a two-digit market!
Most active families drive more than 30 miles a day, and they can’t count on having 8 hours to recharge. Electric is out of the question for them.
For an inactive senior in an urban area (like me), an electric would be within my range limits… but my transport needs are already covered by bus and foot. My transportation is exactly $45 a month, and there’s no way an electric car would pay for itself. Besides, I need the exercise!
For an inactive senior in a small town, the grocery store or post office or relatives are likely to be in the next town. She may drive only once a week, but each trip is more than 30 miles.
In short, the people who can afford it don’t fit within the range limits, and the people who fit in the range limits don’t need it.
I tried commenting at the NYT’s 24 hours ago. There was one comment then, and one comment now. This article is in the ‘automobile’ section so it probably slipped past editors…censors…but you know the NEW YORK TIMES is afraid to have any kind of substantive debate about climate change or global warming. Here are my comments that the Times has decided is not in their best interest…so they are not publishing it…which is their right…
“I am sure glad all those tax dollars from the middle class went to this wonderful car company. Thank you Al Gore. Thank you President Obama.
Will this delay those Green Jobs in Delaware you were bragging about Vice President Biden?
Is it legal for Al Gore’s venture capital firm to lobby for a loan to be given to a company like this? I seem to remember some sort of NASD regulation about that…oh wait, its FINRA now…they had to change the name after Bernie Madoff…I think”
Somebody needs a post explaining what karma is, yeah?
Stark Dick:
Using Google, the first entry said:
The second definition seems to be applicable here.
Would the humor be more obvious to you if the title read: Bad Electric Kar-ma ?
My Karma electrocuted my Dogma.
==========
Karma is Patchy choo choo reincarnating as a sacred cow, but in a feed lot in Amarillo Texas surrounded by wind turbines for the next 100 lives.
The Fisker Karma, just like the Chevy Volt is a car for idiots.
The remark about the Chevy volt comes from the Audi Director USA.
“The Chevy Volt is a car that only appeals to preening schmoes and will fall flat on its face.
Or so says Audi of America president, Johan de Nysschen, who went off on the Chevy Volt and electric cars in general, with Lawrence Ulrich of MSN’s Exhaust Notes.
Nysschen tells Ulrich, “No one is going to pay a $15,000 premium for a car that competes with a (Toyota) Corolla…They’re for the intellectual elite who want to show what enlightened souls they are…so there are not enough idiots who will buy it.”
Read more: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2009-09-03/green_sheet/30041182_1_electric-cars-cleaner-cars-chevy-volt#ixzz1iE4Jpyg2
Hybrids only have an advantage under heavy -stop and go- traffic use.
The moment you’re cruising at higher speeds the additional weigh of drive drive line quickly eliminates the advantages.
I want one.
I’ll wait ’til one shows up in my local flea market and then POW! I’ll snag one of those beauties on the cheap.
If we can’t make it here, you have no business mandating it.
It’s now apparently beyond our current ability.
The usa is like a third world country now.
Manufacturing?… we don’t do that anymore, it’s beneath us.
America can thank the bean-counters.
It is suicide to export your know how, machinery, and manufacturing ability.
Bring it back, baby…
Soon as i become an internet billionaire i’ll buy one. With fire supressant.
I just read the recent book by NYT’s columnist Thomas Friedman – “That Used To Us”. Throughout the book he sprinkles all kinds of references to how our future will be the electric car. And how the Gov’t must subsidize it now to compete with fossil fuel etc etc. Funny, how he left all this kind of stuff out. The devil is in the details. He did the same thing with his chapter on global warming – The War on Physics.
“R. de Haan says:
January 1, 2012 at 9:00 am
The Fisker Karma, just like the Chevy Volt is a car for idiots.
The remark about the Chevy volt comes from the Audi Director USA.
“The Chevy Volt is a car that only appeals to preening schmoes and will fall flat on its face.
Or so says Audi of America president, Johan de Nysschen, who went off on the Chevy Volt and electric cars in general, with Lawrence Ulrich of MSN’s Exhaust Notes.
Nysschen tells Ulrich, “No one is going to pay a $15,000 premium for a car that competes with a (Toyota) Corolla…They’re for the intellectual elite who want to show what enlightened souls they are…so there are not enough idiots who will buy it.”
Read more: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2009-09-03/green_sheet/30041182_1_electric-cars-cleaner-cars-chevy-volt#ixzz1iE4Jpyg2
Hybrids only have an advantage under heavy -stop and go- traffic use.
The moment you’re cruising at higher speeds the additional weigh of drive drive line quickly eliminates the advantages.”
True of the Volt.
Maybe also true of Toyota hybrids.
Honda Hybrids excel on the highway.
I have two 50-60 mpg highway hybrids, a Civic Hybrid and a 2010 Insight.
I may not believe in AGW but I do believe in MPG.
My wife and I were out looking at new cars last night. We’re looking for an economy car that gets good gas mileage (around 40mpg) but is 15k or less. Hard to find.
And I noticed all the car stickers now have a “Global Warming Index” on them, at least Toyota and Honda did. I’m in Washington State, so apparently Cali has infected the rest of the world.
http://www.themustangnews.com/fomoco_08/st-0608crap132.htm
So, Two and a Half Men substituted one train wreak for another?
Makes one wonder if Algore has money in both the car company and the show, eh?
Pity Halon fire extinguishers were banned by the ozone hole worriers.
H.R. says:
January 1, 2012 at 9:00 am
“I want one.
I’ll wait ’til one shows up in my local flea market and then POW! I’ll snag one of those beauties on the cheap.”
Me too… Then I’ll slip in a 3L petrol supercharged six and have a great vehicle. Will be great for traffic light burn ups… 🙂
Shocking. Just shocking. Oh well. Maybe Obama wants a new job. Selling hot cars.
Leftist bureaucracy’s use of global warming scare tactics as a means for social change has been a fire bomb in the hands of the liberal mob.
polistra says:
January 1, 2012 at 8:24 am
Right! The two middle fingers of Friendship! Both are directed at the taxpayers.
polistra says:
January 1, 2012 at 8:24 am
“…In short, the people who can afford it don’t fit within the range limits, and the people who fit in the range limits don’t need it.”
Sadly, the ultimate goal of the progressive left is to force us all into little boxes in big cities, the better to control the peasants. The micro-range of the electric car is but one cog in the machine.
It *is* a sharp looking car. 🙂 I’d like one with a twin-turbo inline-6, but I’m not holding my breath. ;->
@ur momisugly tallbloke
Halon, pretty safe stuff as I recall. Didn’t the Germans use it for their submarines? You can breath it and the fire goes out.
I am surprised CO2 extinguishers have not been banned yet.
“With the approval of the Obama administration, an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work.”
Please remember this when you’re asked to make sacrifices and PAY TAXES in the name of global warming…
Also, please remember this in November. My vote this November will be entirely based on who can take down the bloated, wasteful, unneeded, government-back climate industry the fastest…