Henrik Fisker Teams Up with Hong Kong Billionaire as a Last Effort to Save Company

While currently under the threat of bankruptcy, Fisker Automotive is not dead - yet. Who would you think is the person who wants to save the company the most? Why, of course, it’s the automaker's founder, Henrik Fisker, who resigned from his position at the helm of Fisker after not being able to resolve his differences with the members of the board, regarding strategy and future ambitions – or at least that's what we're told.

This renewed interest from Mr. Fisker is welcome, because sensing the start of decay from within, vultures began circling the company months ago, ever since it became known that not a single car had been built since July of 2012.

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Fisker Karma May Live On Through Bob Lutz's V8-Powered Destino

The Fisker Karma is a pretty car, further emphasizing Henrik Fisker's talent in designing great-looking automobiles. However, aside from the sexy shape, the car was let down by poor quality materials, finish and build. Furthermore, the range-extender powertrain, while competent, never offered the level of performance one would expect from a car looking like that.

Now, chances are we won’t be seeing any more Karmas being made, as the company has gone under bankruptcy, however, there still may be some hope, in the form of the Destino, which is basically the same car, but with a GM-sourced V8 engine shoehorned under the bonnet.

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2014MY Fisker Karma Updates Purportedly Leaked by Laid Off Employees

After years of troubles, Fisker Automotive lost its founder, laid off most of its employees and effectively shut down its operations as it seeks bankruptcy protection. Unless a miracle happens, the future for the California-based carmaker looks extremely bleak.

Until we see how this story ends or continues, we can share some different kind of news about the company as we received a tip pointing us towards the Fiskerbuzz forum where the automaker's laid off employees allegedly posted a picture and some details of the tweaked 2014 model year Karma.

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The Plot Thickens for Fisker – Gets Hit with Federal Lawsuit

After losing its driving force, Henrik Fisker, and 75 percent of its employees, Fisker Automotive takes another blow. The fired workers are accusing the automaker of not having notified them in advance, and are calling the company's action illegal, bringing about a federal lawsuit. Their motivation for pursuing the legal way also probably stems from the fact that aside from being paid for their unused days off, there wasn't a severance package in sight. Read more »

Cash-Strapped Fisker Pulls the Plug on Most of its Workers and All Press Staff

According to reports citing inside sources from Fisker Automotive, the Anaheim, California-based carmaker has just laid off 160 of its employees, and has only kept a core group of 40 people to keep things running.

Matters have been going from bad to worse for the automaker over the course of the last twelve months, with its cars catching fire, drowning in New Jersey, having no battery packs and losing the creative driving force, co-founder Henrik Fisker, in addition to all of their well-documented money troubles.

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Bad Karma? Henrik Fisker Quits Fisker Automotive

Yes, it is true, Henrik Fisker, the co-founder, executive chairman and designer of Fisker Automotive, the maker of the Karma range-extender hybrid, has officially left the company.

As always with situations such as this, nobody ever gives a good reason for their decisions, and all we're left with are ambiguous lines which don't really tell us anything particularly new.

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Henrik Fisker Says he Dined and Wined at Least 500 Karma Buyers

Even if you’ve bought the obscenely expensive Lexus LFA, chances are that you haven’t had dinner with Mr. Akio Toyoda. The same applies to any car owner and the CEO of the company that manufactured his or her vehicle.

Unless you are a Fisker Karma buyer, that is. Henrik Fisker told AutoblogGreen that, instead of a traditional campaign, the company is thinking of “more innovative ways of doing marketing”; and that includes meals with buyers and potential customers.

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Fisker Looks for Strategic Partners in China, Hasn’t Built a Car in Six Months

The Karma might look gorgeous but things aren’t looking very good for its maker, Fisker, right now. In 2012, despite having delivered some 2,000 Karmas, it’s had its federal loan frozen, issued a number of recalls on the Karma, saw its battery supplier, A123 Systems, go bankrupt and 16 of its cars being destroyed by hurricane Sandy and, to top it all, it hasn’t built a single car in the past six months.

So the company is looking for partners and investors. And what better place to turn to than a country that wants to acquire high-end EV technology? That would be China; according to a report from Reuters, Fisker’s top executives are trying to find a strategic partner that would help them get things started again.

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NAIAS 2013: Bob Lutz'a New Destino Sport Sedan is the Corvette ZR1 of Fiskers [w/Video]

Ask most people what they don't like most about the Fisker Karma, and there's a good chance they'll tell you something about its price tag, its moustache-style grille or the fact that it's powered by a range-extender hybrid drivetrain.

Leave it to Bob Lutz to come up with a crazy solution to address the last two. The former GM vice-chairman collaborated with industrialist Gilbert Villereal to form a new company named VL-Automotive, the first product of which is the Destino based on the Fisker Karma.

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Fisker CEO Says Carmaker is Looking for Partners, Shopping Out its Hybrid Technology

Having cars like the Aston Martin DB9 and V8 Vantage and the BMW Z8 in your portfolio is quite an achievement. Building your own car company from scratch beats that – even more so, when you factor in that you haven’t celebrated your 50th birthday yet.

Henrik Fisker is the man who has done all of the above. Fisker Automotive may have rolled out its Karma luxury plug-in hybrid sedan but is facing some problems, the most pressing of which is the lack of finance.

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Batteries Not Included: Fisker Halts Karma Production Until A123 Battery Supplier is Sold

As if it wasn't facing enough setbacks already, Fisker Automotive is now forced to deal with a new one through no fault of its own. The California-based carmaker announced today that it has halted production of its Karma plug-in hybrid luxury sedan due to a shortage of battery packs.

Fisker CEO Tony Posawatz said at the LA Auto Show that the carmaker is waiting for the outcome of the December 6 auction of A123 Systems, the company’s sole battery supplier that has filed for bankruptcy.

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Fisker to Build New Technical Center in the Midwest, Continues Development of the Atlantic

Despite facing more than a few setbacks, Fisker Automotive is pushing ahead with its plans and announced today that it will establish a new technical center in the Midwest as it continues development of the Atlantic, its second model after the Karma.

Although a location hasn’t been selected yet, South Eastern Michigan has been named by the company as a likely site for the new facility that’s scheduled to open in spring 2013.

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Sandy, Bloody Sandy: Mega-Hurricane Destroys 200,000 Vehicles, Including 15,000 New Cars

The biggest Atlantic storm ever in U.S. history, which hit New Jersey, New York and the surrounding regions with 100 mph+ (160 km/h) winds that caused at least 100 deaths, has left the East Coast counting its losses and trying to fix the damages.

The catastrophe brought about by mega-hurricane Sandy damaged or completely destroyed thousands of new and used vehicles owned by dealerships as well as individuals. According to initial estimates, Toyota, Chrysler, Nissan and Honda will have to write-off around 15,000 brand-new cars.

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Fisker Wraps Investigation of Karma Fires at New Jersey Port, Blames One Car's Vehicle Control Unit

Last week, Sandy's furious tempest resulted in 16 brand-new Fisker Karma sedans and three Toyota Prius hybrids going up in flames at a shipping facility in New Jersey after being submerged in seawater for many hours.

While we have yet to hear from Toyota, Fisker's engineers finished investigating the incident and have just released their findings through a press statement.

According to the manufacturer, the culprit turned out to be a low voltage Vehicle Control Unit in one Karma, which after being under salt water for several hours, short-circuited and caused a fire that then spread to the other 15 extended-range plug-in hybrid models parked nearby due to the strong winds blowing at the time.

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Mega Storm Sandy Submerges 16 New Fisker Karma EVs, which Then Catch Fire at New Jersey Port

The bad news for Fisker continues. Among the many victims of Hurricane and then Tropical Storm Sandy are approximately 16 brand new Fisker Karma extended-range hybrids that were parked in Port Newark, New Jersey.

An eyewitness told Jalopnik (which like the rest of the Gawker websites, continues to be down after Sandy drowned its data center but is broadcasting temporarily from this site), that the Karma sedans “first submerged in a storm surge and then caught fire, exploded.”

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Fisker Karma Gets Colorful Wraps for its First Visit to the SEMA Show

Even Fisker cannot resist the lure of the SEMA aftermarket show, which it will be attending along with re-skinned examples of its Karma plug-in hybrid luxury sports sedan.

To be honest, there's nothing really dramatic about Fisker's SEMA show Karma saloons as the California-based automaker has simply chosen to display a car dressed in protective film wraps from 3M to highlight its newly formed partnership with the company, and a second custom-painted model dedicated to synthetic motor oil brand Mobil 1.

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Fisker's New Atlantic Mid-Size Hybrid Reportedly Pushed Back to Late 2014 or 2015

Building a car company from scratch is quite an achievement. Deciding that your first product will be a US$100,000+ hybrid saloon is very bold. Launching it to the market means, you’ve arrived, even if it’s a little later than originally planned and your first-ever model faced some recall issues soon after its sales began.

Henrik Fisker did all of the above in four years. He knew very well though that you can’t sustain a company with a single model; especially one that costs more than US$100K. That’s why Fisker Automotive revealed the Atlantic, a mid-size petrol-electric hybrid, at the New York Show last April.

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Fisker Karma Once Again Lambasted by Consumer Reports in its Latest Tests

With over 8 million subscribers and more than 50 labs, Consumer Reports claims to be the world’s largest independent product-testing organization. As far as the automotive industry is concerned, falling short of CR’s standards could spell bad news or at least bad publicity for any new model.

In its latest issue, the publication tested the Ford Escape Titanium and SE compact SUVs and the Infiniti JX, while also conducting two comparison tests: one in the compact upmarket segment, where the Acura ILX faced the Buick Verano, and the other in the luxury sedan category with the Fisker Karma placed against the Porsche Panamera S.

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Fisker Says Karma Hybrid Luxury Saloon Already Surpasses 2025 CAFE Standards

The launch of Fisker’s first product, the Karma, has not gone as smoothly as the automaker would have liked to. Delays in production and recalls over a battery-related fire risk wasn’t exactly the publicity company founder Henrik Fisker was expecting for the luxury hybrid saloon.

On Tuesday, though, the upstart manufacturer announced that the Karma already surpasses the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards that were finalized on August 28 by the NHTSA and EPA and will come into effect in 2025.

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What do You Say About a Chrome-Wrapped Fisker Karma with Neon Underglow Lights?

We cannot confirm if this Fisker Karma sports sedan does indeed belong to Justin Bieber as claimed by YouTube user "Speedracer39" who shared the video, but we can say that the owner of this six-figure plug-in hybrid has gone a bit overboard with the mods.

Besides the full-body chrome wrap, the blacked-out alloy wheels and heavily tinted windows, the owner came up with the bright (literally) idea of adding so-called "neon underglow lights" that change colors while the car is on the move.

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