Production of Fisker Karma PHEV Now Delayed Until February 2011, Investor Says
By Scott Doggett May 27, 2010
Fisker Karma to enter production in December 2009. Delayed. Fisker Karma to enter production in September 2010. Delayed. Karma to enter production in February 2011. We'll see.
That's about the size of it over at Fisker Automotive, the Irvine, Calif., startup whose co-founder, Henrik Fisker, is eager for his $88,000 Karma extended-range PHEV luxury sports sedan (pictured) to roll into showrooms.
But that's not going to happen this year. So says Ray Lane, managing partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the storied U.S. venture capital fund.
Lane, an early-stage investor in Fisker, said the automaker plans to build 70-100 vehicles this year though Finland-based contract manufacturer Valmet Automotive and virtually all of them are destined to be used for testing.
"Some of them will be given to customers for testing purposes as well, out in the real world," Lane said in an interview with Reuters.
He said the model "will go into mass production in February," adding about 15,000 vehicles will be built annually. The Karma is designed to travel 50 miles on a single charge in electric-only mode. In hybrid-mode, the car has a total range of 300 miles.
Fisker, which has been granted $529 million in U.S. government funding, plans a lower-cost car dubbed Nina in 2012 that will be built in a former General Motors factory in Delaware. Karma and Nina models will compete with vehicles from established automakers and rival start-ups, including Nissan's Leaf and Tesla's Roadster and Model S.
"Given the choice ... I would have Fisker have a partner," Lane said. Given the capital required in scaling car production and the tough marketplace, he sees consolidation ahead.
"You have a bunch of small companies that are out there selling electric vehicles, and you have the big companies now slowly behind them," Lane told Reuters. "I would say 10 years from now you would be lucky to have one of these (small) companies left.
Fisker spokesman Russell Datz told Green Car Advisor that Fisker has "no comment at this time" on Lake's remark that he'd like to see the startup tie up with a bigger, established automaker the way Tesla has tied up with Toyota.
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The Karma, an all-new car with all-new technology, will be to market just three years after it was introduced as a concept. That's half the time it takes some manufacturers to introduce a traditionally-powered car. Also, the government funding is a loan, not a grant, that is expected to create 2,000 American manufacturing jobs.
All this is also true, fiskerauto. Fisker Automotive and Henrik Fisker are to be commended for all they have accomplished. I'm very much looking forward to the day that I can walk into a showroom and ask to take a Karma out for a spin. And then I'll ask to take a Karma S Sunset for a spin. That will be a superlative day for me. Just look at the car in the photo above. It's what I fondly refer to as a gorgeous screamer. So sleek. So sexy. So fast.
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