The Fisker Atlantic could go into prototype production by early next year.
Fisker Automotive has ambitious plans to re-launch its car in Europe soon, take it to the Middle East by the end of the year and begin sales in China in early 2013.
The troubled battery-car start-up’s new chief executive officer Tony Posawatz acknowledged the company had made mistakes but dismissed a crushing review by Consumer Reports — which described the design of the Fisker Karma as flawed –and said the public’s reaction to the plug-in hybrid is what matters most.
“Customers do like these cars,” said the former General Motors Co. executive who had been responsible for bring the Chevrolet Volt to market.
The Karma has been well received by customers, who are pleased with both its combination of bold styling, instant power, fuel economy and aura of eco-chic, he told the Automotive Press Association during a luncheon in Detroit.
Fisker's new CEO Tony Posawatz shown here with the Chevy Volt he helped develop while at GM.
Posawatz noted that extended-range electric vehicles, like the Karma and the Chevy Volt, which run on electricity but carry on-board gasoline generators to take over when the batteries run down, are proving themselves in the market by outselling pure battery-electric vehicles, such as the Nissan Leaf. Fisker itself has sold more than 1,000 Karmas, which cost $103,000, since the car went on sale last December, he noted.
Posawatz also said Fisker expects to make a final decision on when to build its next vehicle by the end of the year. Dubbed the Atlantic, Fisker promises the smaller model will cost roughly half as much as the Karma.
“Everything we learned on the Karma will be dialed back into the Atlantic,” said Posawatz.
The project was delayed by at least a year when the federal government decided to freeze a low-interest loan it had approved for Fisker, forcing the start-up maker to turn to private equity financing.
However, the Atlantic’s design and engineering is basically done and stored on computers. Fisker could start building prototypes as soon as January, he said.
Fisker, which was founded only five years ago, has raised more $1 billion to finance its start and is confident it can continue to raise fresh capital. The company has recently pulled in another $100 million from a private equity investors and expects to raise $200 million more, Posawatz indicated.
Fisker also plans to take the company public in the not too distant future, he said. In fact, that was one of the reasons the long-time GM executive was brought in to replace former Chrysler president Tom LaSorda, who stepped in last February to serve temporarily as Fisker’s CEO. LaSorda, himself a one-time Chrysler chief executive, was an early Fisker investor and briefly served as CEO before being replaced by Posawatz in August.
“It was just like Ed Whitacre situationat GM. Tom didn’t want to say he would stay for three or four years,” Posawatz said, referring to the executive who helped bring General Motors out of bankruptcy then retired a few months later.
Posawatz, however, said he was prepared to stay with the company as it moves into the next phase of its development, including development of the Atlantic and an initial public offering of stock.
A number of other manufacturers, none of whom he identified, have expressed an interest in a strategic partnership because of the challenges created by new fuel economy rules, he said. The U.S. government recently locked down new Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards that will require manufacturers to meet fleet standards of 54.5 mpg by 2025. Electric propulsion is considered by many to be a critical too for meeting that target.
Fisker’s California-based rival, Tesla Motors, has been propped up by several of its own alliances. The battery-car maker provided the drivetrain for the new Toyota RAV4-EV and is assisting Daimler AG on several of its own electric vehicle projects. In fact, Tesla founder Elon Musk has said that without these outside alliances it would not have survived during the development of the recently launched Model S sedan.