When you’ve endured a spate of bad publicity, any good news is welcomed. Fisker has recently experienced negative coverage thanks to issues with battery supplier A123 Systems, along with financial negations with the DOE surrounding its next model, the Atlantic.
We haven’t heard much about the Atlantic’s future lately but sales of the Karma are rolling on. Fisker is aiming to secure private funding to continue development of the Atlantic, rather than relying on the Department of Energy. The small automaker has already raised nearly a billion dollars in private equity funds. For now, the future of Fisker’s plant in Wilmington, Delaware is in doubt. DOE funding was supposed to make sure the Atlantic was produced in the United States.
The Karma is produced by Valmet in Finland, and Europe appears to be taking to it quite well. Fisker has announced that in the Netherlands is the second-best-selling luxury car brand in the “segment for high-end four-door models.” Yeah, that is a pretty narrow definition – but still, Fisker will take what it can get. According to Fisker, the Karma outsold the BMW 7-Series, Mercedes-Benz S-Class and Audi A8 during the period from January to April.
Tom LaSorda, Fisker Automotive Chief Executive, said: “This is a great achievement for Fisker and signals the potential demand in Europe, where we intend to sell 40 per cent of our output. It is an encouraging sign of progress following the Karma launch. But we have much more to do as we bring new models to market.”
The model to top the charts? The Porsche Panamera. It is interesting to see that Fisker seems to be doing well in Europe. It introduced the Surf model (pictured) nearly exclusively because of the European market. Whether or not the Karma’s European success has to do with fuel prices, style or regional production isn’t certain. European success is something that will probably figure heavily into future decisions about the Atlantic though.
