The Reason The Fisker Karma Was A Failure

It’s difficult to point to a single flaw as the reason for the Fisker Karma’s failure. It’s more a story of multiple financial, engineering, and production failures that led to the company declaring bankruptcy and selling all of its assets to Wanxiang Group before re-branding as Karma Automotive. As a hybrid vehicle, the Fisker Karma needed an internal combustion engine, battery pack, and electric motors, and as a relatively new company, Fisker Automotive decided to partner with specialists to design and production of most of the internals of the vehicle. 

According to Green Car Reports, the internal combustion engine in the Karma was a GM Ecotec engine, while the battery was provided by A123 Systems — a smaller company that had some promising new technology but didn’t have the reputation of its larger contemporaries, like LG Chem and Panasonic. That lack of long-term testing came to a head in 2013. To put a finer point on it, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had issued a number of recalls for the Karma relating to manufacturing defects in the battery packs that could result in fire risk, as well as a variety of airbag safety issues. To make matters worse, A123 Systems — Fisker’s only source for batteries — would go bankrupt in 2012, according to Reuters, forcing Fisker to cease production of the Karma.