Fisker Karma to restart production under different name
We haven’t talked about Fisker Karma that much lately, the last time we reported on them it was to say that they were purchased by a Chinese company and that the production of vehicles would be restarted by the end of this year.
According to Detroi media, a revised Karma – free of the bugs that caused Fisker’s bankruptcy last year – is in the works, as well as a station wagon-like version of it – the Surf – which is expected to take a year longer to debut after the revised Karma.
The Atlantic model – which will be smaller and cheaper – is quite likely more eagerly anticipated than the re-launched Karma however it is slated for sometime in 2017.
But now we get to the marketing side of things because it seems that none of these vehicles are going to be called Fisker, because according to Wanxiang-appointed president of the company Roger Brown: “the cars are the rock stars”.
He added that Wanxiang isn’t flashy and even though the bought and paid for the company, they don’t want to export the technology to China – which was one possibility – instead they bought it because they want to create a great car company.
That sounds all good and blustery but if they are considering marketing their product in the west, a name like Wanxiang will pretty much ensure you don’t get a following. On the other side of the coin there’s the bad baggage that comes with the Fisker name, considering the major problems it went through and the reason for its bankruptcy, it’s safe to say that rebuilding that brand name would’ve been close to impossible.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with the technology though, and if they fix it properly there’s no reason why they can’t try to sell their vehicles.
