Another electric car PR disaster

[Civicsman]

During basic pre-test preparation, a Fisker Karma under test by Consumer Reports died and could not be restarted.

"Consumer Reports says their Karma went bad after a warning light flashed during an initial drive; when they parked the car, the transmission refused to shift. "We buy about 80 cars a year and this is the first time in memory that we have had a car that is undriveable before it has finished our check-in process," the magazine said.

Fisker released a statement, saying

It's important to note that with more than 400 Fisker Karma sedans already on the road in the U.S., we also have many satisfied customers who are enjoying daily commutes in their cars...

This is an ludicrous statement and represents an incredibly bad attitude from a manufacturer. They don't have "many" cars on the road. The statement should have read, "We only have 400 cars on the road. There is absolutely no excuse for any of our vehicles to be dead-on-the-road." Further, according to various news services, there are a number of reports by other owners of other serious problems, such as intermittent electrical black-out conditions.

As I have mentioned before, it is extremely difficult to engineer and build cars properly. This is often terribly misunderstood by newbie vehicle manufacturers. A few early adopters may accept the idea that their $100K car won't function, but the shine on that apple wears off very quickly.

I don't care much about Fisker itself. It's a niche player, but it's another black eye for electric vehicle technologies. Therefore, I hope they they get it sorted out quickly.