Fisker unveils Karma S drop-top

You can still establish your own car company, even in the 21st Century. 'All' you need is an original idea... plus design flair... and organisational skills... and experience consulting to other car companies, absorbing their different ways of doing things... and then some marketing smarts and a small team of loyal and gifted supporters.

That's Fisker Automotive for you. The limited-volume car builder makes it look rather simple, but the only thing truly 'simple' about the California-based manufacturer appears to be its orgchart.

At the head of the company -- a joint venture formed by Quantum Technologies and Fisker Coachbuild -- is Henrik Fisker. The man whose name is on the door has previously worked as a designer for Aston Martin, Audi and other highly-regarded factories. He's now branching out on his own, through his company, Fisker Automotive.

Fisker, the man and the company, have just won a legal case brought against them by Tesla, the company that is offering an all-electric sports car based on the Lotus Elise. Tesla brought the case against Fisker Automotive on the grounds that Fisker had been consulting to Tesla at the same time that Fisker had first revealed the Karma hardtop sedan -- a swoopy looking car with Aston Martin and Maserati styling cues in its favour.

At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Fisker and Tesla's respective stands were placed across an aisle from each other, presumably at the whim of the organisers, says Fisker's Director of Public Relations, Russell Datz.

"It's just the way things worked out," he told the Carsales Network, adding that Fisker had no reason to be upset, in light of the favourable outcome in the courts. "If we were them, I don't think we'd be too happy," he wryly remarks about Tesla.

"It all started when Tesla actually hired Fisker Coachbuild to do some design... for them... That's what Fisker Coachbuild was -- and they still are -- an automotive design house.

"So, Henrik and [business partner Bernhard Koehler] did some work for Tesla and somewhere along the way, they announced Fisker Automotive. Tesla wasn't too happy about that, so they sued, saying that Bernhard and Henrik's company stole information.

"That's pretty much it in a nutshell. They say we stole information, we said we didn't -- and the judge ruled in our favour.

"Tesla is still planning a four-door, codenamed the 'White Star', so that's what was being worked on -- by Henrik and Bernhard.

"The one company [Fisker Coachbuild] had nothing to do with the other [Fisker Automotive]."

At the show, the company unveiled its Karma-S folding-roof coupe/convertible and attracted what might be called a throng of interested parties. With media gathered about fourteen-deep around both cars, it was hard for Datz or his bosses to find time to speak with a media representative from Australia -- a market not on the radar for the company.

"We have right now two distributors. One is in Italy and one in Denmark -- to cover both north and south [of Europe].

"No plans for right-hand drive right now," Datz confirmed, adding that modifying the cars for RHD would be expensive.

"It's a lot of engineering changes happening... Moving the wheel over, there's packaging, there's crash [safety]..."

Both the Karma four-door and the Karma-S are complex designs with a 2.0-litre GM Ecotec engine mounted longitudinally in the front of a spaceframe, with expensive aluminium panels (the rear quarter panels, for instance) constructed using an innovative procedure. Crash safety testing alone would be an expensive.

Asked about the sort of buyers who would be interested in either of the Karma models on display in Detroit, Datz has a straightforward answer. They would be Mercedes-Benz S-Class buyers -- if Mercedes-Benz offered a plug-in hybrid S-Class model.

"There's no plug-in hybrid in this luxury segment. In fact, I believe the only hybrid car in that segment is that Mercedes S-Class -- and that's the same sort of hybrid that the Toyota Prius is, a parallel hybrid."

While there's no doubt that the Karma is closer to the Chevy Volt than it is to either the Mercedes S-Class hybrid or the Toyota Prius, it's unlikely that many will confuse the Mercedes with a Prius -- or even be put off by the 'relationship'.

The Karma models derive power from the GM-sourced four-cylinder merely for the purpose of extending range. All the motive power comes from electric motors.

Despite the environmentally-sensitive nature of the Fisker designs, they're fast, luxurious and expensive. You'll need north of US $80,000 to buy one, but that hasn't set back sales in the slightest. Plainly the current economic crisis afflicting global markets -- and particularly the USA -- is not hurting prospective Fisker buyers.

"1300 advance orders right now," Datz replies to the question of how sales are going, to date.

"The economic crisis is a concern, sure, but right now it's not affecting us directly because we're not 'selling' anything -- yet. We're taking advance orders, yeah, but there isn't anything on the ground.

"We're hoping to reach our goals of about 7500 in the first year."

Fisker will not actually commence production of either model until near the end of this year, so with 1300 advance orders in hand, the company's projection of 7500 for the first year looks pretty safe.

The greatest concern facing the company, according to Datz, is that the very stylish -- and more expensive -- Karma S may take sales away from the four-door model. Wouldn't we all 'hate' to be in that position?