Lu Guanqiu, the Chinese owner of Fisker and the man that pledged to go bankrupt to beat Tesla, says that a new Fisker model is coming in three years, but only after production of the Karma resumes.
Lu is the chairman and founder of Chinese industrial giant Wanxiang Group Corp., the country's largest parts supplier, which snatched up Fisker and its battery supplier, A123 Systems, after both companies went belly-up.
Speaking with reporters, Lu said that a new Fisker is slated to arrive in 2017, but wouldn't say what form it would take or what it might compete with. Considering Lu has his sights set on Tesla and said he'll "put every cent that Wanxiang earns into making electric vehicles", a fully electric vehicle is likely in the cards – possibly a proper Model 3 competitor.
However, Lu's goal of another Fisker hinges on the return of the Karma, and that's proving to be problematic.
The original plan was to bring the Karma back from the dead within a year, but a series of issues may have pushed that timeline back.
"At Fisker, the biggest issue is to solve the problems," says Pin Ni, the president of Wanxiang's U.S. subsidiary. "There are about 250 bugs in [the Karma] we need to de-bug. I often say that Wanxiang can afford to make cars, but Wanxiang cannot afford to make bad cars."
We say start with the Surf and go from there.