So why was Fisker Karma a failure?

[SSSnail]

I mean, there were some quirks, but why?

I thought I liked it quite a bit when it first came out, and its technology wasn't bad. I mean, fixed the fire issues (even Tesla had them) and it would have been a run away success.

Was it because it was a bit early? Did the fuel price crisis helped Tesla?

The Fisker Karma was a sexy car though.

 

[ultimatebob]

I can think of two reasons:

1) A few of them caught fire, and

2) Justin Bieber bought one. That just made them seem less cool to me.

 

[evident]

i saw one on the road another day. My only guess was that the implementation of technology wasn't as good as the tesla? If i remember correctly it came out a few years before the first tesla ever did.

 

[thomsbrain]

More than a few of them caught fire. Not even remotely comparable to Tesla's "issues," which were no more prevalent than most regular cars.

The exhaust fumigates the driver when the car is at rest.

The interior looked like a concept car from 1978.

Should be interesting to see how Lutz does with his LS-powered version. The Karma certainly had a fantastic exterior design.

 

[core2slow]

I believe it's because +300 of them were destroyed by Hurricane Sandy as they sat idling at the shipping port waiting to get work done to cover a recall.

 

[Eug]

i saw one on the road another day. My only guess was that the implementation of technology wasn't as good as the tesla? If i remember correctly it came out a few years before the first tesla ever did.

I forgot they ever existed until I actually saw one on the road a couple of months ago.

 

[bigi]

It was shit it nice (for some) wrap which did not work and cost too much.

 

[tsupersonic]

i saw one on the road another day. My only guess was that the implementation of technology wasn't as good as the tesla? If i remember correctly it came out a few years before the first tesla ever did.

The poor Tesla Roadster is always forgotten about!

 

[Hugo Drax]

Because it was utter garbage.

Crappy handling, crappy performance, crappy reliability,crappy build quality, would occasionally catch on fire.

It was a total failure and the company failed.

 

[ultimatebob]

The poor Tesla Roadster is always forgotten about!

The Roadster was a cool car!

 

[Topweasel]

Tons of reasons.

1. Ridiculously expensive. Fisker was selling these at a huge loss. He hoped to get to production to point where they could build them profitably, it probably wouldn't have been the Karma that did it for them. But once he decided that the Karma was going to be sold at a loss he decided that by how much didn't matter. Several articles suggested actual cost to be around 500k each.

2. Massive recall.

3. A123 responsible for the recalled batteries was so badly managed that handling the recall bankrupted them. At one point they were so desperate for money, their genius idea was to head hunt all the local supplier companies near by for as many employees as possible offering them crazy money to take the job. Their theory was that they could get a state grant of something like 150 million if they got to a certain size. To recap a hurting business that was hurtling towards bankruptcy thought their best idea for survival was to triple in size hoping to get a free handout.

4. When A123 crumbled it basically left Karma scrambling for a battery supplier while they were already heading towards bankruptcy. While moving all recall claims into their responsibility.

5. They then lost 30 million in value in the Sandy incident mentioned above. But really that was 120 million in production value damage. Because the cars were sold so much under cost, even if they were insured it would only be for MSRP. Rebuilding those cars would cost them 90 more million.

 

[tortillasoup]

Because it was utter garbage.

Crappy handling, crappy performance, crappy reliability,crappy build quality, would occasionally catch on fire.

It was a total failure and the company failed.

This.