the image that building
cars requires a massive
workforce and gigantic
factories. And considering
the struggles of Tesla
to get the Roadster to
market, plenty of people
are doubtful of Fisker’s
promises. (Fisker was
actually hired to design
a second car for Tesla, a
sedan now code-named
White Star, but he and
Musk had a falling-out
that resulted in a lawsuit.
A judge ruled in Fisker’s
favor last fall.)
“Tesla came out
of the Silicon Valley
mentality: Build a car
company like you build a
software program,” says
Jay Friedland, legislative
director and a board
member of Plug In
America, an organization
that advocates for
electric-powered vehicles.
“Fisker comes out of the
auto industry.” Friedland
says that “the hardest
thing for any new vehicle is homologation.”
That’s the car industry’s term for navigating
through the onerous process of government
approval, which involves multiple agencies
and months of testing. Fisker, who has spent
his entire career creating cars, “has lived
through that enough times.”
Investors clearly believe. In September,
the company closed its third round of
financing, surpassing $100 million, thanks
in part to two of the most powerful VCs in
clean-tech: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
(home of Al Gore’s green fund) and Palo Alto
Venture Partners.
“We like a lot of things about it,” says Ray
Lane, a managing partner at KPCB. “It’s an
automotive team taken out of the automotive
environment. I’ve seen Silicon Valley teams
that were full of ideas and energy, but then
they realized really late, ‘ Wait, we have to
build cars!’ Second, it’s a no-compromise
vehicle. Electric vehicles have always made
you compromise in some way, whether it’s
power or range or looks. This is a car you’d buy
even if it weren’t green.”
But green it is, and not just under the hood.
“We tried to see how we could continue the
theme of being an environmental car in the
interior,” says Fisker. “We didn’t just want to
come up with stories of 10 percent recyclable
ROAD TESTED Henrik Fisker’s
plug-in hybrid, the Karma, comes
with an auto-industry pedigree.
MADE THE SKETCH, AND SAID ‘THIS IS IT.’”
can really merge the desires to go fast and to
go as far as you want, whenever you want. And
when I saw you can merge those desires with a
beautiful design and a hot car, I thought, This is
something nobody has done and something I can do.
And in doing so, I can help promote the idea
that we can still drive cool, fast, sexy cars.”
By January 2008—only five months after
sketching the car—Fisker had the Karma
concept, a stunningly beautiful four-door
sports sedan built around Quantum’s power
train, now known as the Q-Drive. What’s
more, he promised to deliver it by the end of
2009 for $80,000. It was ridiculously bold.
Skepticism was abundant.
And yet, nine months later, Fisker was
insisting that the first 100 versions of his
car would be delivered to customers by the
fourth quarter of 2009, which would make
the Karma the first production plug-in hybrid
to come to market, at least a year ahead of
the Chevrolet Volt. The first Karma owners
will be influencial people, such as celebrities
and politicians like Al Gore, but he says
7,500 Karmas will be sold in 2010, and 15,000
more in 2011. A second model, a coupe with a
folding hardtop, will also be available.
A launch this fast is unprecedented in the
car business, which is heavily regulated and
capital intensive, not to mention burdened by
materials or 5 percent soybean foam. Those
stories are already old.”
The Eco-Sport model uses wood salvaged
from the bottom of Lake Michigan. Another
model uses wood from trees burned in
last year’s Orange County fires. Fisker
Automotive also has a “happy cow strategy,”
although the cows that end up as seats might
beg to differ. Nonetheless, the leather is
harvested from grass-fed free-range cows
raised to maturity in the hills of Scotland,
and, in contrast to other manufacturers who
use only the choicest sections, virtually the
entire hide is used. Instead of being covered
with plastic, gauges are covered with glass,
which is made from sand. For the animal-rights consumer, there’s an Eco-Chic edition,
which is fully animal free; in place of leather
is a fabric made of bamboo fibers, an industry
first. The carpets are wool. The paints contain
an ultraviolet layer to reflect light and aid
in cooling. Solar panels embedded in the
Karma’s roof will power the air conditioning.
Fisker says he’s rooting for Chevy’s Volt
and any other alternative car company that
should come along. In an industry undergoing
a paradigm shift, there’s room for everyone.
He has partnered with GM on the engine
and various other car parts, but don’t expect
Fisker Automotive to be swallowed up. There’s
more to gain by establishing the brand and
then taking it public, which is exactly the plan
sketched out by Fisker’s powerful VC backers
(see “Follow the Money” on the opposite page).
Meanwhile, Fisker is already looking ahead.
He is sketching his next car (“a new take
on what the family-oriented vehicle could
be”) and has no doubt that, no matter what
technological issues might arise, he can work
around them. And while he’s happy to embrace
the appreciation of environmentalists, he’s
hardly looking for sainthood.
“There are probably some idealistic people
who just want to do better for the world, and
I admire them,” he says, stepping out into
the California sunlight to glad-hand some of
his new dealers, one of whom is practically
drooling on a model Karma out front. “But I
have to be honest: I don’t think it’s a matter
of whether you want to do something better
for the world. This is the direction in which
we need to go to have a world we want to live
in and that our children will be able to live
in. We have no more choice. And if you
are one of the first entrepreneurs to come
up with a correct product, you can create
a better world and make a lot of money at
the same time. And that is essentially what
America is about: creating a better world
and making a lot of money. I think there’s
nothing wrong with that.”
