Fisker's new owner is committed – no, obsessed – with bringing the Karma back to life, and the first step isn't outlining a cohesive business strategy or securing a new production facility or releasing details about how it's fixed the original car. Nope. It's a new website. Welcome to TheNewFisker.com!
The Wanxiang Group Corp. has launched the site in an attempt to slowly rebuild the brand that crumbled under the weight of its own ambitions (and engineering challenges). It's chock-full of useful stuff, including a timeline of the company's collapse, a slideshow look into its future (bereft of any details, just photos), and a place to answer a few questions. Here's a sampling:
Are there any plans for new Fisker models?
We are excited about the Karma and truly believe we can launch the Atlantic, Surf and Sunset in the future. The Karma platform allows The New Fisker to develop a lot of variations to address our customer's desires. With the Atlantic platform we expect the same ability to create different models to address our customer's wants and desires.
How about production?
Prior to shutting down, Fisker Automotive Holdings assembled the Karma at Valmet in Finland. The team is working with Valmet to address our current plans and to see if Valmet is the path we should take for future Karma production.
And the Karma?
Chariman [sic] Lu Guanqiu, Lu Weiding and Pin Ni have given The New Fisker team direction to restart production of the Karma as fast as possible, while making sure that we only start when we are confident in the quality of cars that we produce. Wanxiang America Corporation is firmly committed to building vehicles we can be proud of manufacturing, and you can be proud to own. As most know, Fisker Automotive Holdings, Inc stopped production over a year ago and a lot of good people have left the company and a lot of suppliers have put the production equipment on hold or giving the capacity to other customers. The New Fisker team will take this restart to improve on Karma and give the customers the outstanding experiences they deserve.
Oh, and what about that Fisker I bought and can't get parts or service for?
Pursuant to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware sale order, Wanxiang America Corporation could only assume an agreement that was dictated by another buyer, so Wanxiang America Corporation was not allowed to change the Asset Purchase Agreement. Within the Purchase Agreement, Section 1.10 (i) provides up to $2,000 per each vehicle warrantied (ii) capped at $400,000 in the aggregate. We understand if you are an owner and paid good money for your vehicle, $2,000 is not what you bargained for or expected. Please understand that this provision was part of the court order that Wanxiang America Corporation assumed and accepted. We are already hard at work discussing ways that we can make this a better experience for all current Fisker owners and hope to bring better news to each owner in the near future.
At least they're being, um, honest.
We've been hearing about the relaunch of the Karma for nearly a year, with Wanxiang's chairman and founder Lu Guanqiu pledging to build electric cars or go bankrupt trying (note: awesome chest tattoo for Lu).
Since then, it's inked a deal with former partner and parts maker Quantum Technologies (which holds a lot of Fisker's IP), and is apparently looking back at Delaware, along with a few other states in the U.S. to restart production. But nothing is set in stone, and all we know for now is that the Karma will benefit from "upgrades", the Atlantic is supposedly still on the table, and to quote a supplier source speaking with Reuters, "You're not buying something that's considered 'state of the art' necessarily. It's a big hurdle to overcome."