Posted on 11/01/2012 11:13:21 AM PDT by Red Badger
Approximately 16 of the $100,000+ Fisker Karma extended-range luxury hybrids were parked in Port Newark, New Jersey last night when water from Hurricane Sandys storm surge apparently breached the port and submerged the vehicles. As Jalopnik has exclusively learned, the cars then caught fire and burned to the ground.
Our source tells us they were first submerged in a storm surge and then caught fire, exploded. This wouldnt be the first time the vehicles, which use a small gasoline engine to charge batteries that provide energy to two electric motors, had an issue with sudden combustion.
The vehicle, despite only being in limited production, has already experienced numerous fires due to equipment failures and electrical shorts. How, exactly, they caught fire after being submerged in sea water is unclear. Its possible the salt water caused a short that led to a fire.
Calls to Fisker and the Port Newark Container Terminal have not been returned as of publication time.
UPDATE: Fisker released the following statement:
It was reported today that several Fisker Karmas were damaged by fire at the Port of Newark after being submerged in sea water during Superstorm Sandy. We can report that there were no injuries and none of the cars were being charged at the time.
We have confidence in the Fisker Karma and safety is our primary concern. While we intend to find the cause as quickly as possible, storm damage has restricted access to the port.
We will issue a further statement once the root cause has been determined.
“What country makes these things?”
Fisker is an American company, founded by Danishman Henrik Fisker, who designed for several luxury Euro brands, before starting his luxury coach company.
He assembled money and talent, to design this first Fisker model, with cheaper versions in the pipeline. Talent includes people from BMW, and private plus US government $$.
The technology is similar to GM’s Volt, using drive from electric battery, which is recharged by both plug in, plus onboard gasoline engine.
Toyota Prius and Ford Cmax Hybrid just introduced their vehilces with similar combination powertrain.
Assembly of this Fisker Karma is in Finland, by a company that also assembles Porsches.
That is right, your US federal government under Obama is stimulating auto assenmbly in Finland, with your dollars.
Don’t blame Fisker, blame Obama.
Sea water is a pretty good conductor.
Buddy of mine flipped an airboat over and by the time we were able to recover it, much of the electrical system had burned or corroded away. It was only in the water for about an hour tops.
I like your blog.
You don’t have heating coils in your heavy oil tanks?
The Greens live on in their Fantasy World with their King, Obama.
Despite it literally blowing up in their. collective faces they want to drag us all deeper and deeper into the red.
To say Liberalism is a mental disorder hardly scratches the surface.
I don’t know what your picture is, but normally a Spyder is not a four door.
These seem to be pictures of the Porsche 918 Spyder:
The car in your picture is nice looking. The VW-Group has an impressive lineup of brands,
VW
Audi
Porsche
Lambo
Bentley
Bugatti
Seat
Skoda
Their goal is to be the #One carmaker in the world, by volume.
My bad. The car in the picture is a Porsche Panamera S Hybrid, and it’s available now.
My point was: who would want a Karma, when they could have a Porsche, with much better performance, at the same price?
“My bad. The car in the picture is a Porsche Panamera S Hybrid, and its available now.
My point was: who would want a Karma, when they could have a Porsche, with much better performance, at the same price?”
No problem. I live in the OC, met a few people employed by Fisker. Many came from BMW. Few know BMW has a design center in Ventura County, alongside their Port Hueneme facilities for west coast shipments.
The Fisker exterior styling is very nice looking. But the interior is cramped. A fellow living down my street had a prototype home one weekend.
It was initially planned to sell below $80,000 but now is priced at about $105,000. For that price, there are many competitors which the customer could rely on mechanically.
There is hybrid, and then plug-in hybrid. All a plug-in does is give a few miles on all electric power.
Besides Volt, Prius and Ford C-max now have plug-ins.
Regular hybrid is here to stay. I saw a Jetta hybrid sedan, for a bit more than Prius. Looks normal, not a special body to scream “look at me.”
Fisker might pull it off, but it now looks doubtful.
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