Luxurious and Green: The Fisker Karma

What’s better than a green, eco friendly Prius? Well, the Fisker Karma of course. Fisker Automotive is an independent start up by partners Henrik Fisker and Bernhard Koehler. Being in business since 2007, Fisker Automotive is a fairly new brand. The new hybrid is only one of many sports hybrid cars currently on the market that are in fact, greener than ever. How can the Fisker Karma possibly be so green? It has silent electronic door latches and a solar-panel roof. This helps run the AC fans and fill the battery. It is considered an Eco Chic car and it consists of natural-fabric seats. It includes wood trim recovered from California forest fire and the dashboard is ultra suede, which means no leather is used.

“This car is more sexy and exciting than any other car you’ve seen,” boasts designer Henrik Fisker.

Basically, the Fisker Karma is the first luxury plug-in hybrid. It has two modes. Stealth mode is battery mode, and sport mode gives the car 402 horsepower. When driving the car, it can go up to 50 miles on battery power, then the system is jolted by electricity from the 2-liter, 4 cylinder turbo gas engine. This luxury car is competing with the Porsche Panemera and the Tesla Roadster. These are all eco friendly luxury sports cars. What differentiates these cars is price, physical features, and brand equity. Fisker Karma beats its competitors when it comes to being ecofriendly, and no other luxury hybrid can be plugged in to charge. The Fisker Karma is $103,000 and is near in price to its competitors. The Panemera is $95,000 and the Tesla is $109,000.

 

Will the Fisker Karma be successful globally? (They have built the car to have low emissions, to cater to European countries.)

Will people want to invest in such a new unheard of American company or will they stick to trusted brands like Porsche and Lexus?

 

Sources:

http://jalopnik.com/fisker-karma/

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-12-08/classified/sc-cons-1201-autoreview-fisker-20111208_1_batteries-fisker-karma-green-machine

http://library.depaul.edu/CheckURL.aspx?address=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=50448860&site=ehost-live&scope=site

 

7 thoughts on “Luxurious and Green: The Fisker Karma

  1. I have actually been following the production of this car for years now and I think it is absolutely amazing! While the price range is a little higher than most electric cars out there, I feel the quality and the name of the designer (designed the Maserati) makes this car worth the price. When talking about how this car will do in the market, well…. I think its going to be just fine. Actually when this car first was released there was a waiting list backed up for months, but since the car had been on the manufacturing line for years they where able to keep up with demand quite well. Since so many people are going green and theres always a demand for luxury cars this company might have a heads up compared to many other car companies.

  2. While this car does seem like a good step in the right direction, the specifications and limitations are such that I do not believe it will be globally successful. At least not without some engineering improvements.

    The limited range makes it more of an urban vehicle, and limits the amount of possible users. Additionally, the gas tank is less than a half gallon. Even though this car does get much more out of each drop (and can go 50 miles without any gas at all) than the average car, the range is still limited. Despite this, it would be great for an urban commuter who never needs to go more than 50 miles without going home to plug in.

    Additionally, the price is high and again limits potential customers. Although, customers who have the means to buy $100,000 dollar sports cars anyway would do well to buy this stylish car to help them save some money and the environment.

  3. I completely agree with you Mike. I didn’t know there was a backed up waiting list for the Karma. That is very interesting. I think this car is getting a lot of publicity. Justin Bieber, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ashton Kutcher, and Al Gore are only a few celebrities that have it. I think with this kind of promotion, this car will be very successful globally. It was created for low emissions environments too, so that is a hint that Fisker is pushing for global sales.

    Peter, I think you do have a point. the Karma does have its limitations. The Karma is still very similar to the Tesla Roadster and the Porsche Panamera, its competitors and most buyers would probably consider purchasing the competitors because they are more familiar brands. I also think that since Fisker Automotive is such a new brand, it’s business could boom or totally flop. Because the Karma has been such a huge success, I think this new brand has a lot of potential. I mean, it is pretty gutsy to start up an independent car company, so I’m expecting Fisker to make bold moves in the car market.

  4. I personally would invest in a company exactly like this. Not only are they producing a car mew to the market but they have differentiated from others with the plug in option. This is very attractive. I believe some of the best products out there are the new ones which haven’t been around for a while, especially the ones which involve new technologies. The world is on the verge of discovering so many new and different things because of the developing technologies. I would love to buy this car because it’s different and to me different is more attractive than Porsche and Lexus.

    I also believe this company can be very successful globally. If they can implement the proper marketing strategies they should have no problem. I think many people in Europe would wish to purchase this car because the style of it fits with some of their current non eco-friendly cars.

  5. While I feel that Eco-friendly cars are undoubtedly something that this world needs, I do not feel that this car will be the one to do it. First of all, this car was originally designed to be a Tesla, but the designer ran off and started his own company…not the type of ethics I would like in my car manufacturer. Secondly, with all newer boutique car manufacturers, there is simply not the expertise that a name like Porsche has behind it. Last but not least, the range of this car makes it a terrible selection for many consumers. Since it has less than a 100 mile radius, it makes weekend road trips impossible. I do, however, support the overall vision of a green car company and hope that products like this continue to evolve and are able to bring their prices down substantially.

  6. I completely agree with some of the statements in this blog post by mikem301s12 and f1223jkundrat being that this car is very innovative and that it is going to revolutionize the electric car market and that it is a boutique automobile, however i think that some very large points are being missed.

    First off, let me just state that I have a long history of knowledge with the Fisker corporation and what there famous for. This is just another example of a car that follows there exact track history. Fisker, first started as a manufacture that would rebody the mercedes sl class and bmw 6 series to “look better” however, they merely were fitting an aerokit and different front and rear ends to car to make them look unique and like f1223jkundrat said make them an exclusive boutique automobile. Fisker then would drastically overcharge for these vehicles, which were merely bone stock bmw’s and mercedes with hideous looks in my opinion. These cars were no different mechanically and were not engineered drastically different then a stock car. Same goes here with the karma. They took a econobox 4-cyclinder with a lack of engineering, and fitted this gigantic hideous body on it with technology of a golf cart, and are charging 100,000+ thousand dollars for it. It’s a mere joke, and it’s a shame that its even compared to a tesla which has engineers in the lotus skunk works working for them, and with the introduction of porsches new models of hybrid electric technology that has been tested on the nurburing and 24 hours of LeMans, its not even a competition, and i think that Fisker will once again crash and fail.

  7. I believe this car will be successful in the near future. First reason it is a hybrid car that runs off of electricity and gas, which is extremely convenient and eco-friendly. Considering the environmental situations we are currently facing and the price of oil skyrocketing cars like this will be very popular and in high demand in the near future. Secondly, people still like luxury and class when it comes to their motor-vehicles, the prius is an awesome hybrid, however it doesn’t offer the luxury, horsepower, speed, uniqueness, and class that this car does. Its is truly one of its kind. The only is that people like to go with trusted car brands or brands that they know of especially with cars. However they aren’t just making regular cars they are making hybrids and electric cars so they could make a great stand. I believe they will.

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