Karma Goes Green
By Bruce Porter | September 17, 2011 8:00 AM
The most highly anticipated plug-in hybrid vehicle of 2011 won’t be unveiled by Mercedes, Porsche or Lexus. Auto enthusiasts around the world are champing at the bit for a chance to throttle the Fisker Karma EVer, which has been pulling into showrooms across the country this summer.
“Suddenly it doesn’t matter what political opinion or party you’re a part of,” Henrik Fisker says from his company’s headquarters in Irvine. “Everybody can agree on one thing: It’s great to have a car that uses less fuel and pollutes less.”
The Karma, which starts at $95,500, runs primarily on electric motors. A turbocharged four-cylinder gas engine made by General Motors is used to recharge the car’s lithium-ion battery when it begins to run low. For most commuters, who travel less than 50 miles per day, there is no need for the gas engine. But for longer trips, the Karma has a range of more than 250 miles between charges, with mileage of somewhere around 100 miles to the gallon. The entire car was engineered specifically to be eco-friendly: The interior wood trim originates from trees recovered in forest fires, and the optional solar roof panels help power the battery and air conditioner.
Although its practicality is admirable, the Karma bears little resemblance to first-generation hybrids like the boxy Toyota Prius. Instead, its elegant bodywork is matched by its thrilling acceleration and agile handling characteristics. Drop your foot on the accelerator, and the Karma jumps from zero to 60 in just 5.9 seconds.
The Karma’s chic, muscular lines and powerful performance owe more to the tradition of high-end BMWs and Aston Martins than to mass-market Japanese imports, which will be no surprise to those familiar with Fisker’s credentials. As perhaps the leading automobile designer in the world, he was the driving force behind BMW’s Z8 roadster, the model featured in the James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough. Later, while working for Ford, he updated Aston Martin’s vaunted DB9 and V8 Vantage.
Fisker shocked his colleagues when he walked away from one of the most coveted jobs in the auto industry. “When you go through certain things in your life, you hit a certain success—more than I expected. I almost felt like I’d reached the ceiling in the corporate environment,” the 47-year-old Danish-born CEO says in explaining his decision to team up with Bernhard Koehler to start a new luxury car company.
In 2003, Fisker Coachbuild was formed with the intention of designing innovative new bodies on existing platforms, which Fisker refers to as “something of a lost art.” The company made two hand-built supercars: the Taramonto, which used the base architecture of the Mercedes-Benz SL; and the Latigo CS, which used the power plants of the BMW 6-series.
“The big moment came when I saw Leonardo DiCaprio driving to the Oscars in a Toyota Prius,” Fisker recalls. “Here’s a guy who could drive any car in the world, and he’s driving a Toyota Prius. I think the major point of that was the statement he wanted to make—that he cares, and wants to show it (DiCaprio was recently spotted in Hollywood driving the Karma). And I felt, there’s got to be a lot of people out there who care, but would also like a cool car.”
“So I thought there was going to be a huge market, and coincidentally I met a person from Quantum Technologies,” he continues. This chance meeting came about when Fisker’s wife, Patricia, was in Newport Beach buying a new Land Rover. There, she met the wife of Alan Niedzwiecki, the CEO of Quantum. “Alan and I had lunch together at an Italian restaurant near South Coast Plaza, right after Christmas in 2007, and we just talked cars,” Fisker says. “He showed me a military vehicle that had a [Q-Drive] propulsion system, so we took the idea of that system and designed a car around it.”
Still, there must have been some apprehension as to the wisdom of launching a new car company, Fisker Automotive, in the midst of the country’s worst recession in decades. Auto manufacturers, especially in Detroit, were reeling. General Motors was on the verge of bankruptcy, and eventually required a government bailout to keep solvent. Iconic brands like Pontiac, Saturn, Mercury and Hummer had been discontinued. How would Fisker Automotive avoid the same pitfalls that befell Bricklin and Delorean?
“We did a bit of research to figure out why they failed and, of course, there are many reasons, but one of the major ones was that, especially in Delorean’s case, he started building a factory before he had a product,” Fisker explains. “When you’ve been in the car industry, you know one of the biggest, most difficult things is the assembly of the vehicle. We decided to outsource our first car because we didn’t want to spend $100 million on a factory with a 15,000 volume.”
Fisker Automotive contracted Valmet, the Finnish manufacturer that currently builds Porsche Box sters, to assemble the Karma. So far more than 3,000 cars have been preordered, which bodes well for their production goals. But Fisker has more ambitious plans for his next production model, another electric car tentatively called the Nina. Fisker hopes to sell 100,000 of these less expensive sport sedans.
Investors have been eager to get involved. Fisker Automotive has secured more than $500 million in private funding, and another half-billion in a loan from the federal government that comes with the stipulation that it is spent domestically. In a brilliant stroke of luck, or perhaps masterful planning, Fisker was able to buy a plant in Delaware in 2009 at a bargain-basement price. “We ended up buying a factory from General Motors, which probably would have cost us a half-billion to make,” Fisker says with a sly grin. “We bought it for $20 million—so that’s unheard of in the history of cars.” When the plant is ready, Fisker Automotive intends to build the Ninas there and continue production of the Karmas.
“We are going to stay in Orange County,” Fisker says, “but we are moving into a bigger building, 156,000 square feet in Anaheim, because we need a place with 800 parking spaces. Yeah, we’re American—but we’re a California car company.”
After leaving Aston Martin in 2003, when his frequent trips to England tailed off, Fisker and his family decided to settle down in Newport Beach. “I’ve always liked the ocean,” he says. “Living in Denmark, you’re one hour from the ocean—even if you live in the middle of the country. When I got over here I knew that we wanted to live by the beach.”
After some debate between Newport and Laguna Beach, Fisker and wife Patricia chose the former, pleased with the discovery of a “reasonably big house” for their two kids and two dogs. “My [Brazilian-born] wife is from Switzerland, and Newport is clean like Switzerland,” Fisker says. Their son, Mark, 19, now studies at Purdue University, and daughter, Natasha, 16, goes to CdM High School. The Fiskers are weekly regulars at Wildfish in Newport, and also like to head south to Sapphire in Laguna Beach.
Fisker loves classic automobiles that compete at the prestigious Concours d’Elegance at Pebble Beach, like the Maserati Merak and the Lamborghini Espada. “Part of my inspiration for the Karma was to look at these beautiful old cars, the ones that really get your heart pounding, and see what it was that made us fall in love with cars,” he says. “And to try to bring that to the Karma, using modern technology.”
