Fisker Consolidates U.S. Facilities, Closes Michigan R&D Center

Like most of the big players in the automotive industry that had to retract, right-size and close facilities across the country, electric vehicle startup Fisker Automotive has also had to bite the bullet and consolidate some of its operations. A little over a year after establishing its 34,000 square foot engineering and development center in Pontiac, Michigan, Fisker has announced that it will close the facility and transfer its 30 staff to its headquarters located in Irvine, California.


Fisker isn’t completely abandoning the state of Michigan as the company fully intends on maintaining its relationship with local suppliers.


The move is scheduled to take place on March 1 at which point Fisker’s headquarters will house all design, engineering, sales, marketing, and administrative operations. At the same time Fisker also plans to increase the number of new hires, though no numbers have been revealed.


According to the company, the consolidation is to "accelerate development of its next-generation plug-in hybrids".


The company’s first model, the upcoming Karma plug-in hybrid luxury sedan, will be built by independent vehicle manufacturer Valmet in Finland but its next model, codenamed Project NINA, will be built at a former GM plant in Delaware, which Fisker secured the rights to thanks to a $528 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy.
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Fisker Karma

Henrik Fisker has a dream, and an honorable one at that. "We see no reason style and performance need to be sacrificed to attain fuel efficiency and environmental responsibility," says Fisker, designer of the Aston Martin DB9, V8 Vantage, BMW Z8 and the upcoming plug-in hybrid Karma sedan. That's a tough message to get out there, though, since many people can't seem to reconcile the thought of driving excitement with environmentally friendly design.

To help break down those obvious barriers, Fisker Automotive has brought aboard Russell Datz, a man who has previously worked with Lotus for the U.S. launch of the Elise and Panoz, makers of Ford-powered boutique sportscars. Datz is also familiar with going as fast as possible, having owned an Audi 5000 Turbo Quattro and autocrossed a Honda CRX. Welcome aboard, Russell! We're happy to see a longtime gearhead filling another desk at Fisker Automotive and wish you the best of luck in your new position.

© Source: autoblog
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Fisker Karma will get GM’s 2.0-liter turbo 4-cylinder

Fisker’s Karma is planned as a plug-in hybrid that can have its batteries recharged through a gas-powered engine - much like the Chevrolet Volt. Now Fisker is getting closer to the Volt by using a General Motors engine for recharges. But unlike the Volt, which has a 1.4-liter unit planned, Fisker will use a much more powerful 2.0-liter turbocharged unit.

The Karma is out to give itself a performance image with GM’s 2.0 direct injection, turbo 4-cylinder Ecotec gasoline engine that will deliver 260 hp. Powertrain organization will supply the gasoline engine that generates electricity when the driver has exceeded the 50 mile electric-only range.

The company will start deliveries of the Karma in the 4th quarter of 2009 in North America with planned delivery to Europe in 2010. Fisker Automotive’s annual production is projected to reach 15,000 cars, with more than half of sales expected to be overseas.

© Source: topspeed
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Fisker Karma

Autoblog is at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show this week and one of the cars there that is drawing a lot of attention is the Fisker Karma. The Karma, designed by Henrik Fisher, is a premium hybrid sedan. Autoblog reports it is powered by the Q-DRIVE, a system from Quantum Technologies in which a four-cylinder engine powers a generator to move the car.

It can do the zero to 60 hop in 5.8 seconds and reach a top speed of 125 mph. It can run on just electricity or in sports mode which uses the four-cylinder engine. Luxury features of the four-door sedan include a navigation system and DVD player with headrest-mounted displays. The first 99 will be signed by the designer. The cars won't be available until 2009 and sell for $80,000.

© Source: luxist
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