Fisker Automotive, flush with cash from one of the biggest names in venture capital, may build its $80,000 plug-in hybrid in Detroit and use lithium-ion batteries made in British Columbia.
Vic Doolan, the company's director of retail development, says Fisker is considering the Motor City because of its experienced workforce, idle manufacturing capacity and broad network of suppliers. "It does make a lot of sense" to build the Fisker Karma in Michigan, he told the Detroit Free Press.
Fisker unveiled the car at the International North American Auto Show in Detroit, where Henrik Fisker told us he plans to outsource drivetrain development and vehicle construction. The way he sees it, there's no need to invest in a factory or a workforce when both are readily, and relatively cheaply, available. He's got a deal with Quantum Technologies to develop the drivetrain, but they're going to need someone to build the car.
Each of the Big Three is offering generous buyout packages to downsize their workforces, and as many as 130,000 autoworkers could soon hit the bricks. Detroit also is bracing for a big decline in production - which could fall below 10 million for the first time since 1992 - as the economy tightens. MoTown will soon have the workforce and capacity to build the Karma.
The company will have to move fast if it's going to get the Karma on the road by the end of 2009 and hit a production target of 15,000 cars, which Fisker told us he wants to do. He wouldn't tell us what was under the hood of the Karma we saw in Detroit and we've since heard there was nothing at all under it. But Quantum Technologies says its "Q-Drive" drivetrain will give the car a range of 50 miles on battery power alone and 620 miles with the small gasoline engine driving a generator that will charge the battery. It's a similar setup - and projected range - to what General Motors is shooting for with the Chevrolet Volt.
There's also no word who's going to build the lithium-ion battery Fisker says will provide the juice, but AutoblogGreen speculates that job could go to Advanced Lithium Power because it worked with Quantum Technologies to develop electric plug-in Ford Escape hybrids for the South Coast Air Quality Management District in Southern California.
An auto industry analyst we recently talked to called the Fisker Karma a beautiful bit of vaporware, noting the company has offered a lot of talk but little else. Building a production car is tough - ask the folks at Tesla Motors who managed to loose lose $43 million between 2002 and 2006 - and Fisker's still got to develop a drivetrain, integrate it into a car that actually works and then successfully clear the federal regulatory hurdles.
That's no small feat, even for the big boys. Toyota is scrambling to get the Toyota Prius plug-in on the road within two years, and General Motors is throwing almost everything it has at the Volt, which Bob Lutz told us will be ready for production by 2010 - but could be at $10,000 more than promised.
That said, Fisker's got some advantages. First, the guys calling the shots have been around the block a few times. Henrik Fisker has worked for BMW and Aston Martin, where he designed the Z8 and DB9, respectively. Doolan is a former president of BMW North America, executive director of the Premier Automotive Group (Ford's luxury division) and president of Volvo Cars North America.
Second, and equally importantly, Fisker's got the financial backing of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of the biggest - if not the biggest - names in Silicon Valley venture capital. KP recently handed Fisker another check with a lot of zeros, saying it is "committed" to investing in Fisker because its "groundbreaking, forward-thinking design stands to pave the way for a greener and more efficient transportation future."
Whether that future includes a drop-dead gorgeous four-door plug-in hybrid remains to be seen. But it seems the company is on the right track.
Photos by Fisker and Wired's Joe Brown.
