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New Fisker Karma spare parts coming soon

It's easy to fall in love with the Fisker Karma based on looks alone. Figure in the luxury interior, electric drivetrain, and the convenience of the extended range, and it's hard to fault anyone who took the plunge and plunked down their hard-earned dollars for this swank green machine. Things go wrong, sure, as they do with any vehicle, but when the company goes bankrupt and you can't get the parts to get your car running again, let's just hope you really like the way it looks in your garage. Fisker's new owner, Wanxiang, has some welcome news. "The Fisker team is settling and still negotiating with over 300 suppliers," says Linyun Frank Qi, Fisker Coordinator at Wanxiang America, in a note to the Fisker Owners Club. "Most of them are good to go now which means we will soon have access to all the parts and also means you will soon have access to them too." Qi says he had an accident of his own in the company show car, which is still in the shop, so he can empathize with other Karma drivers. Wanxiang, a highly profitable auto parts company, bought Fisker earlier this year, along with its battery supplier A123 Systems. The company says it has grown the Fisker team from 20 to 80 people in recent months. The news that parts will soon be available could also be evidence that Fisker is closer to beginning production of the Karma again. Fisker bought an old GM plant in Delaware as part of the deal to purchase the company, and has said that there is a "50-50" chance of building cars in the state. It also wants to build a second model beginning in 2017.

New Fisker owner Wanxiang is a $23-billion-a-year auto parts company

If you thought early Fisker Karma buyers like celebrities Leonardo DiCaprio and Cee Lo Green had deep pockets, get a load of the company's new owners. China's Wanxiang Group, which earlier this year acquired the extended-range plug-in vehicle maker in a bankruptcy auction, generates more than $23 billion in annual revenue, Automotive News says. Billion with a "b." In fact, the company generates about $3 billion a year from US autoparts sales alone, so it's no stranger to the domestic automotive industry. That said, there's plenty of work to be done to revive the company. Wanxiang US chief Pin Ni said the Karma has "hundreds of issues" that need fixing before the sleek but troubled sedan is manufactured again. One hurdle cleared, though, is the fact that Wanxiang also bought lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems out of bankruptcy for $257 million. As for Fisker, Wanxiang beat out Hong Kong-based Hybrid Tech Holdings for the right to buy the automaker earlier this year for $126.2 million in cash and $8 million in assumed liabilities. And, while Wanxiang Group Chairman Lu Guanqui has recently been making the rounds with dignitaries such as US Vice President Joe Biden, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and Delaware Governor Jack Markell, no details have been revealed about when Fisker will start making cars again.

Fisker's new owner working out Karma's 250 'bugs' before introducing second model

Fisker may be down, but it might not stay down forever. The company behind the Karma luxury hybrid shut down late last year and was purchased by Chinese OEM supplier Wanxiang Group, which intends to restart production. It just can't tell us when. Speaking with Automotive News Europe, Wanxgiang executives indicated they have some work on their hands, sorting out 250 "bugs" it has found in the existing Karma. Once it has those sorted out, it plans to start production again at the Valmet plant in Finland before potentially moving assembly to the plant in Delaware that Fisker had acquired from General Motors. The executives were touring the United States to inspect their battery factory in Michigan, visit the plant in Delaware and meet with government officials in Washington. Wanxiang apparently has even bigger ambitions than that, however. The latest news is that it intends to expand the rebooted Fisker with a second model sometime in 2017. The company has not provided any details as to what that form that model might take, but prior to its bankruptcy, Fisker displayed a smaller concept sedan called the Atlantic at the 2012 New York Auto Show. Fisker had previously revealed the Surf wagon and Sunset convertible concepts based on the Karma as well, but there's no telling at this point if Wanxiang has any intent on putting those into production any time in the near future.

New Fisker owner ready to go broke building EVs, challenging Tesla

Now this is the kind of fighting spirit we like to see. Lu Guanqiu is a Chinese billionaire who has visited the White House alongside Chinese president Hu Jintao in 2011. He's worth an estimated $3.1 billion. And he wants to take on Tesla Motors and other EV makers with his newly purchased company, Fisker Automotive. Lu is the chairman and founder of China's Wanxiang Group Corp., which bought Fisker for just under $150 million earlier this year. It also purchased battery supplier A123 Systems last year. Speaking to Bloomberg recently, Lu said that EV technology is at the top of his list of ways to go broke. "I'll put every cent that Wanxiang earns into making electric vehicles. I'll burn as much cash as it takes to succeed, or until Wanxiang goes bust," he said. Ahhh, inspiring. "I'll burn as much cash as it takes to succeed, or until Wanxiang goes bust" – Lu Guanqiu Exactly how and when new Fisker vehicles come to market - or if they'll even be Fiskers when they do – has been the subject of some debate. As part of the Fisker bankruptcy auction, Lu and Wanxiang now own an old, empty General Motors plant in Wilmington, DE. Lu told Bloomberg that Wanxiang has plans to first start building EVs, including the Karma plug-in hybrid, in the US (which suggests that restarting Karma production at Valmet is not going to happen) and to later build them in China. Right now, Lu's company only makes one type of electric vehicle: buses. Lu told Bloomberg he knows it will take a while to get his electric cars to market: "The road is still very long. We want to concentrate for now on manufacturing in the US. If I don't succeed, my son will continue with it. If he doesn't make it, my grandson will." Currently, emails sent to the "New Fisker" website are met with an automated response that promises a more personal touch later. It also says that the company is "very well funded and have a great plan to create a world class automotive company." That the new owner is ready to go broke doing so is not mentioned. You can read the New Fisker email and see a Bloomberg video on Lu below. Dear Fisker enthusiast, We at 'The New Fisker' would like to sincerely thank you for the email you sent via the website and greatly appreciate the time you have taken to reach out to the new company. The details of your correspondence are being reviewed by members of our devoted team, who are truly passionate about responding to you individually and personally.

Destino's VL Automotive merges with GreenTech Automotive

Here's a twist to the Fisker/Destino/MyCar stories we didn't see coming. WM Greentech (WMGTA), the company behind the struggling-but-not-dead-yet MyCar, has merged with VL Automotive, the company that plans to take bodies from the Fisker Karma and repurpose them with a V8 engine. That car will now be part of GTA's new WM Destino brand. That latter idea comes, in part, from former Chevy Volt booster Bob Lutz, who founded VL Automotive with Gilbert Villarreal, an automotive engineer and industrialist. Vilarreal will now become chief operating officer of WMGTA. In a statement, available below, Vilarreal said the merger will let WMGTA get busy making the Destino luxury and that, "I truly believe in the production of the GTA MyCar as a practical, electric transportation solution and an affordable fleet vehicle." The Destino, of course, is neither electric nor affordable. It is expected to cost around $180,000. WMGTA thus has two brands. The GTA division will make practical little EVs like the MyCar. The WM division, on the other hand, "manufactures and distributes energy-efficient super sports cars with internal combustion engine." Now tell us, did you see that coming? WM GREENTECH AUTOMOTIVE CORP. MERGES WITH LUXURY SPORTS CAR MANUFACTURER VL AUTOMOTIVE McLean, Virginia – May 5, 2014 - GreenTech Automotive Corp (GTA), a Virginia-based wholly owned subsidiary of WM GreenTech Automotive Corp. (WMGTA), today announced the recent merger of VL Automotive, an innovative luxury sports car manufacturing company based in Detroit, Michigan. VL Automotive will merge with GTA, a wholly owned subsidiary of WMGTA, which also has a wholly owned subsidiary that produces electric vehicles. After the merger, WMGTA now has its global engineering headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, manufacturing in Tunica, Mississippi, and U.S. corporate headquarters in McLean, Virginia. VL Automotive was founded by Robert A. Lutz, former Chairman of General Motors, and Gilbert Villarreal, automotive engineer and industrialist. Villarreal will join GTA's executive team as its Chief Operating Officer. Before joining GTA, Villarreal served in various engineering leadership positions at the United States Marine Corps, the Boeing Company and General Motors. "This merger will enable WMGTA to ramp up production of the Destino luxury sports sedan while strengthening its electric vehicle division. WMGTA has proven its practical business strategy and sensible approach to product development.

Fisker creditors want a repayment do-over

In February, the Chinese company Wanxiang won control of Fisker Automotive at a bankruptcy auction for a final bid of $149.2 million. The sale meant that Wanxiang would now have to deal with all of the creditors claiming that Fisker owed them money. Those individuals and groups had a combined $1 billion in claims, and they're not happy with how the bankruptcy is shaking out. In April, a settlement was announced that would see those unsecured creditors get back pennies on the dollar. The unsecured creditors are telling the bankruptcy court that they want the judge to take away control of the bankruptcy proceedings from Fisker and implement a new repayment plan. The request was filed by a committee representing the creditors, which said it could have the new plan submitted in a matter of days, if the judge agrees with the request. The committee says there are "unreasonable demands" in the current repayment plan, such as a big paycheck for Fisker's chief restructuring officer, worth $750,000. If the judge allows the unsecured creditors to file a new plan, it will result in the "best possible outcome," the filing said. We admit we're feeling a bit confused and dragged along by the Fisker bankruptcy proceedings. And we're quite sure that the new owners have got to be fed up as well, since they're likely to be in a bit of a time crunch if the company's really going to re-start Karma production next year.

Fisker could be renamed when production restarts in 2015

The Orange County Register has an update on Wanxiang's plans for Fisker, and it starts with the idea that you would see brand new Karmas back on the road in mid-2015. From there the goals get less certain, the OCR saying the Surf station wagon "could ship in 2016" and the mid-priced Atlantic "might come in 2017." The targets came from an interview with interim CEO Roger Brown as he laid out how fluid the present situation is. The primary certainty, according to Brown, is that new owner Wanxiang is determined to execute on its vision and "build a great car company." The puzzle pieces that make that picture are still being assembled – even the name of the post-bankruptcy company, Fisker Automotive for now, is being debated. No matter what the name will be, Wanxiang and Brown need to establish the blood and bones of a company that can provide what the original Fisker Automotive didn't. Brown said they're looking for a permanent CEO over the next three months, they need to settle on a location for headquarters and increase the staff from the current 25 to the 200 or so necessary to engineering a fully fleshed-out Karma and successive products, and figure out where cars are going to be built. Concerning workers, Brown revealed that, "We've been flooded with people that want to come back." As for manufacturing in the Delaware plant that Fisker Automotive still controls or somewhere else, we've heard there are even odds on US production, but the final answer will probably be delivered by the new CEO.

New Fisker claims 50-50 chance it will build cars in Delaware

As soon as the bankrupt Fisker Automotive started crawling back from the dead, rumors that the new owners would restart production of the Karma plug-in hybrid crawled as well. We've heard that the car would be built in the old General Motors plant the company owns in Delaware, that it would happen in Michigan or that Valmet would get going again in Finland. Nothing official has yet been announced, but Delaware Online is now saying that it's even money that Delaware to play a role in Fisker's physical rebirth. "It definitely makes economic sense to consider [the Delaware] facility" – Roger Brown Roger Brown is the interim president of Fisker Automotive and recently said that there is a "50-50" chance that the Newport, DE will be where the company rises again. "We inherited this situation, and because the facility is one of the assets we purchased, it has ... good bones, it has a paint shop, and you know, it definitely makes economic sense to consider that facility," he told Delaware Online. Before Fisker's bankruptcy, Delaware offered over $20 million in incentives to get the automaker to build cars there. It never did, and a recent settlement agreement does not give the state much of a return on that money. The bankruptcy proceedings are not yet finished, but Brown made what has to be considered a bold statement. In deciding which locations makes sense to restart production, he said that, "if they provide incentives, obviously that would go into the equation; if they don't, obviously that would go into the equation also." The closest that the new Fisker has come to saying where it will restart building cars is in documents that new owner Wanxiang filed with a federal court earlier this year. That three-part plan included restarting Karma production at Valmet, using partner VL Automotive's manufacturing facility in Michigan and then building the Atlantic somewhere. Brown gave a timeline to Delaware Online - new Karmas by August 2015, start building the Surf shooting brake by March 2016 and then add in the Atlantic by the end of 2017 - which would give Fisker time to tool up the Delaware plant for the Atlantic. Brown also said that building with VL Automotive has now been ruled out.

Henrik Fisker designs a chopper for Lauge Jensen [UPDATE]

UPDATE: An earlier version of this post incorrectly credited Henrik Fisker with designing the Tesla Model S. While Fisker was contracted for design work early in the development of the Model S, Tesla ultimately rejected his design in favor of Franz von Holzhausen's. Mention of the Tesla Model S has been removed from the list of Fisker's designs below. Henrik Fisker has designed some seriously beautiful vehicles over the course of his career thus far. You'd naturally associate his name with the Karma hybrid that shares it, or maybe the reskinned Mercedes SL and BMW 6 Series he crafted as a coachbuilder, but he was also responsible for such beautiful shapes as the BMW Z8, Aston Martin DB9 and V8 Vantage, and Artega GT. And now he's turned his attention to a motorcycle. Called the Viking concept, the Fisker-designed chopper is the product of a collaboration with Lauge Jensen, a Danish custom bike shop owned by Lego scion Anders Kirk Johansen. The 660-pound Viking packs an air-cooled 45-degree V-twin engine (built, incidentally in Wisconsin, we wonder by whom) churning out 100 horsepower with a six-speed transmission to propel it to a 130-mile-per-hour top speed and meeting Euro IV emissions regulations. It's packaged into a rather sleek take on the classic hog, the curve of the fuel tank melding into the seat and the rear fender. The Viking is set to be unveiled this week at the Top Marques show in Monaco where Lauge Jensen will watching to see how it's received. Given a positive reception, it could soon join the Great Dane in the company's lineup. Considering that bike already sells for ˆ42,800 (about $60k), and that the Viking would likely command an even bigger premium, that would make for one very expensive chopper. Still, it might be one of the least expensive ways to get your hands on a Henrik Fisker original. Featured Gallery Lauge Jensen Viking Concept by Henrik Fisker View 10 Photos News Source: Lauge Jensen Misc. Auto Shows Fisker Motorcycle Concept Cars Henrik Fisker

Hybrid Tech just made $65 million from bankrupt Fisker loan

We can now see at least one possible reason for why Hybrid Tech Holdings LLC bought the US Department of Energy's loan to Fisker Automotive last year for $25 million. The purchase is apparently worth $90 million today. The number is part of a settlement agreement that has come out of the company's asset auction which was won by China's Wanxiang Group Corporation in February for $149.2 million. Hybrid Tech said that the secured DOE loan it owned was worth all of that $149.2 million, but the new agreement says that Richard Li's company is due $90 million instead. The rest of the money will be divvied up between the unsecured creditors (who will split $20 million plus $15 million in equity in Wanxiang affiliates) and "priority claim holders" ($8 million). Delaware media has been interested in the case since Fisker bought an old General Motors plant near Newport and now reports that the state does not expect to get a whole lot back from its $20-million investment. Fisker filed for bankruptcy in late 2012. The asset auction is officially known as "In re Fisker Automotive Holdings Inc., 13-bk-13087, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington)."