…
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
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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.
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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.
Justa Joe says: January 2, 2012 at 10:31 am
China isn’t really a major player in automoblie mfr’ing.
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China claims to be the world’s biggest car manufacturer by vehicle unit volume. I call that a major player. Here’s a reference from China daily claiming they overtook the USA in 2009:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2010-02/03/content_9420521.htm
According to Bloomburg more recently:
“Vehicle sales in China rose 2.6 percent during the first 11 months of this year, with passenger car sales increasing 5.3 percent to 13.1 million units, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. China’s vehicle sales gained by a record 32 percent in 2010.
Slowing Deliveries
The nation’s automobile manufacturers association estimated that 2011 deliveries may grow by the least in 13 years as a rollback in policies aimed at encouraging buyers curtailed purchases.
LMC estimates that China’s light vehicle capacity, which doesn’t include production of minivans and trucks, may grow more than 40 percent to 27 million units annually between 2010 and 2012. The automobile manufacturers association’s category for passenger cars includes minivans.”
reference: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-29/china-stops-encouraging-investment-in-auto-manufacturing-after-sales-slow.html
DirkH;
disappointed you’re buying the “fire hazard” stuff so easily. The one Volt in question that burst into flames was sitting unattended on a lot for weeks after a test side-crash into a phone pole that totalled it. It was left fully charged, never even checked. Stupidity burned that car, nothing else.
Oh, and the verb is “breathe”. “Breath” is a noun.
The Fisker is a functional kluge, IMO. Small interior, small range, big price.
If you want to see the real Karma-Killer, check out the TeslaMotors Model S, huge interior, great range (up to 300 miles), 2/3 Karma’s price or less. Deliveries Q2 this year, first year production oversold by several thousand, climbing fast. To be followed by an even sexier crossover, the Model X, in 2013.
P.S. The ‘S’ blows away the Karma on the road, too. Quickest model does 0-60 in 4.4.. Heh. The Karma looks fast, but struggles to beat 6 seconds. And the hybrid motor is reportedly LOUD. It’s a loser, as made obvious by its purchase and endorsement by the GoreBlob.
Thing that I do not understand about Americans, 110 v is safer???????????
Its amps that kill not volts. Thus the 1,000 amps at 300 volts would fry you nicely.
I have had a few 20,000 volt jolts and walked away, virtually zero amps lukily.
I think saving CO2 is a fool’s errand, but EVs actually do; power plant operation is far more efficient than travelling putt-putt motors, and the electric motor gets 3X more motive power out of the in-vehicle btu store than an ICE engine. That’s where the big payoff is.
Here’s a link to the battery pack manufacturer’s statement regarding the coolant leak:
http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ABEA-3DGNI7/1602192994x0x530250/f528f4d4-ca2f-4d7b-b6a2-2eb55a271afa/Memo_for_A123_IR_Web_site_Fisker_FINAL.pdf
It interests me that we have to make an electric car, claimed efficient, look like a high powered conventional car to attract buyers. An internal combustion car engine puts about one third of its energy input on the wheels through the drive train, one third out the exhaust pipe, and one third into its radiator. So if its engine is powerful, the car needs a big radiator, with a big air intake in the front. So to give the impression of a high performance car, the Fisker has the frontal appearance of a car with a big radiator needing a lot of cooling air. If it is going to have a practical range, an electric car must be able to get most of the battery output to the wheels, so it has no radiator and should not need much cooling air. It seems that the looks are dictated by the sales department, not the engineering department. Without the air intakes that imply more performance than it can deliver, you can not charge $100,000.
Maybe an issue here. I discussed this with a “friend” and he says the following:
What those sources did not report was a requirement for the $500M loan. THE MONEY HAD TO BE SPENT ON CARS MANUFACTURED IN AMERICA. Therefore, the subsidy of the Karma per car is $0
Does anyone have more info on this.
You didn’t mention the Chevy Volt fire issue belatedly revealed by the NHTSA in November.
But don’t worry, they’ve got a loaner program for people who are now afraid to drive them. And they’re working on a buy-back program -you may be able to get your money back for the Volt and keep the $7500 tax break.
My Harley Davidson gets 50mpg with two people on it, can smoke the rear tire 103 cubic inch engine, and is and will always be cooler than a hybrid. All for about $23K. Range 250 miles.
Heck of a lot of fun too.
As for not being able to find a US plant to assemble the Karma Kar, decision factors of course include price to do so and whether or not a facility wants anything to do with a venture that might be questionable with or without the eco aspect (remember Bricklin, DeLorean, and dozens of much smaller ventures?).
Loan guarantees are not proper either, as they prop up an enterprise that could not obtain financing in the open market or facilitate getting commercial loans at lower interest rate. Either way the benefactor of the guarantee is getting a free ride on the taxpayers’ cost of the risk of default. Too much “shell game” in comments in this thread, I am disappointed in the erroneous economic and technical claims.
As for dealers being unable to keep electric cars on the lot, that depends on supply. Since few electric cars have been sold (in terms of normal car sales), I suspect supply is small thus easily exhausted. The financial risk to investors is that the market will saturate quickly, as has happened with some nice retro-image cars.
As for fires, well, is that just poor design?
Batteries are fearsome sources of energy into a low-resistance load (like a shorted wire or conductive liquid, which water tends to be due contaminants). Good safety analysis, with good design including materials choice and proper manufacturing quality – covering high risk identified in the safety analysis – should prevent that.
I don’t know the fire risk in most conventional automobiles from coolant leak, the battery is usually at top-of-the-radiator height, but broken top would spew onto the battery by bouncing off hood, with terminal arrangement such that liquid will tend to run away from terminals, albeit case material may be flammable – I don’t know, fire-resistant plastics are common these days.
However a conventional car with battery in the trunk to re-distribute weight, as used in some high-performance cars, and race cars, would be at some risk of shorting the positive cable in a severe crash (fire would result if combustibles were near or the insulation could sustain a fire spread to an area with more combustible material).