Latest news with #Fisker
Auto Blog
a day ago
- Automotive
- Auto Blog
Here's What Lucid's Future Models Will Be Called
Trademarks Hint At Affordable EVs to Rival Tesla Several new trademarks have revealed the possible names for Lucid's next models, as the company looks to expand its lineup beyond the full-size Air sedan and Gravity three-row SUV. Considering Lucid already occupies these segments, these future models should hopefully be more affordable, giving the brand higher-volume alternatives to the Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model Y. The brand has, after all, already teased a midsize SUV and confirmed a Model Y competitor. Here's a look at all the latest Lucid trademarks. Source: Lucid Lucid Earth Dream Edition The Lucid Earth trademark already popped up a few weeks ago, and it has since been confirmed that this will be a new smaller EV. It's set to go into production in 2026, when it should compete head-on with the Tesla Model Y. The newest trademark is for an Earth Dream Edition, filed with the European Union Intellectual Property Office, adding further confirmation that this is a new Lucid production model. The brand's Dream Edition EVs are typically sold for a limited time after a new car is launched. They offer the best outputs and features, and also carry the highest prices. A price of under $50,000 and a class-leading range are expected for this model, but the Dream Edition could cost more than this. Lucid Ocean Another trademark, this time filed with the Government of Canada, is for the Lucid Ocean. If that name sounds familiar, you may be thinking of the Fisker Ocean SUV. However, Fisker's recent bankruptcy presumably means that the 'Ocean' name is back up for grabs, and since it fits in thematically with other Lucid model names, it's a logical choice. It's not known what vehicle the Ocean name could apply to, but a smaller sedan to slot in below the Air sounds like a logical move. It would give the brand a true BMW i5 and Mercedes-Benz EQE rival, leaving the Air to do battle with the i7 and EQS. Lucid Air Pure — Source: Lucid Autoblog Newsletter Autoblog brings you car news; expert reviews and exciting pictures and video. Research and compare vehicles, too. Sign up or sign in with Google Facebook Microsoft Apple By signing up I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . You may unsubscribe from email communication at anytime. Lucid Space The last time 'Lucid Space' was mentioned, it was by former Lucid CEO, Peter Rawlinson. However, he was specifically referring to the Lucid Space Concept, which doesn't refer to a particular model, but references one of the brand's philosophies. Rawlinson was explaining how Lucid cars free up an amount of interior space beyond the physical footprint of a given vehicle. Once again, though, 'Space' fits in well with other Lucid names like Gravity and Air, referencing the elements and/or the natural environment. Last year, Lucid ruled out a station wagon, but was open to the idea of a more rugged vehicle. Given the brand's luxury focus, a classy coupe doesn't seem out of the question, but electric coupes are exceedingly rare. The word 'Space' sounds applicable to something larger, but the Air and Gravity are already full-size models, so it's anyone's guess what this model could be. Source: Lucid Final Thoughts While Lucid has not yet come close to toppling Tesla, it's doing what a lot of other EV startups couldn't: surviving. And, with only two high-end models on sale presently, the potential for growth is enormous if the brand launches two or more models that are more accessible. The Earth is the only one that looks like a guarantee, but we can't wait to see the possibilities of the Ocean and Space nameplates. About the Author Karl Furlong View Profile
Edmunds
5 days ago
- Automotive
- Edmunds
We Finally Sold Our Fisker Ocean for $10,000
We ended up having to pry one off one of the Ocean's front fascia panels, behind which we found a pair of screws for the hood latch. We removed those, and the hood opened up — and we used that fascia panel to hold it in place, since there's no hood prop. Then it came time to actually charge the battery, which we attempted with a portable jump-start box. The 12-volt battery drained the jump box immediately, which wasn't long enough to provide sufficient electricity to unlock the doors but was enough to set off the piercingly loud car alarm. (Fun!) Eventually, we charged the battery with another vehicle in the Edmunds garage, and that got the Fisker up and running. Was this a final middle-finger gesture from our ailing Ocean or just another item to add to the Fisker's long list of quibbles? Honestly, who cares? We're just glad this thing is finally gone.
Daily Mail
29-04-2025
- Automotive
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE I bought a Fisker Ocean EV for £42,000...but have now got a 2.5-tonne garden ornament stuck on my drive after the company went bust and it stopped working
A woman who snapped up a sleek £42,000 Fisker electric SUV has been left with a 2.5 tonne 'garden ornament' that can't move after its software packed in and the firm went bust. Karin Simonsen, a marketing manager from Southampton, made the leap to battery-powered motoring with a Fisker Ocean Sport in December 2023 - setting aside concerns that businessman Henrik Fisker's last car company had gone bust. But the 52-year-old's electric dream became a nightmare as she suffered repeated issues with its software. Fed up, she decided to send it back to Fisker under the terms of the warranty. But when someone came to collect it, it would not start. Days later, Fisker Inc. filed for insolvency - meaning she had nobody to return the car to. Technicians had disabled the 12 volt battery after the alarm kept going off - but this has left it an inert brick that can't be moved or even opened. Far from having her dream motor, Ms Simonsen has been left with a car-shaped paperweight in her driveway for the last 10 months, with no end to the saga in sight. 'It has just been, from day one, a catalogue of catastrophes,' she told MailOnline. The experience of an all-software car has put her off ever buying an electric motor again. Ms Simonsen decided to make the leap to electric at the end of 2023 after test-driving a Fisker Ocean and falling in love with the car's cool eco-credentials, including its use of recycled materials and zero carbon emissions. Despite the fact that the company's founder, Henrik Fisker, had failed once before - his first firm, Fisker Automotive, filing for bankruptcy in 2013 - she was confident that his new venture would have more success. She took out a bank loan and picked up the car from the glossy Fisker Lounge shop at London's Westfield shopping centre. Like rival firm Tesla, Fisker eschewed contracting sales out to dealerships in favour of selling directly to customers via its own shops at the Westfield and in Milton Keynes. Even then, there was a cruel omen that she admits she should have heeded: the car failed to recognise the key fob and wouldn't start. 'Something in me said, "Don't do it, Karin" - but I overrode that in the excitement of my new car and took it home,' she said. 'Ever since that day I've had issues with the vehicle, loads of them. Lots of things didn't work on it, and they would always say, "it'll be a software update, that'll fix it".' Common issues with the Fisker Ocean software saw many of its basic features hampered - from the key fob issue Ms Simonsen experienced on day one to issues with its air conditioning. But there were also far more serious issues, including errors with sensors and safety systems and even sudden losses of braking power. After experiencing a raft of problems with the car - which repeated visits by Fisker technicians failed to fix - Ms Simonsen decided she had had enough. She contacted Fisker in June to send it back under the terms of its warranty, and the firm sent out a trailer to pick it up - only to find that they could not start the car. An issue with the 12 volt battery meant the alarm was constantly going off - so technicians ultimately disabled it - having to remove part of the front of the car just to access the bonnet - and ended up immobilising the vehicle altogether. 'The day they came to take it away it wouldn't go into drive so they couldn't get it onto the car trailer,' she said. It would be the last time she would see them - days later, Fisker filed for Chapter 11 insolvency in the US, taking its UK operations with it. The British subsidiary, Fisker (GB) Ltd - owned wholly by the US parent - then filed a petition to be wound up on July 23. Its director Dr Geeta Gupta-Fisker - Henrik Fisker's wife, and the company's chief operating and chief financial officer - did not appoint an administrator. The Insolvency Service has appointed the official receiver of London to handle Fisker's liquidation, leaving it with the unenviable task of helping people like Ms Simonsen get her money back. She has been left in limbo because Fisker authorised the return of the car, for which she was set to receive a refund - but she is now unsure when, or even if, she will see any of her cash again. There is no sales support; no technicians; no Fisker left to contact - and a big 2.5tonne reminder that she is £42,000 out of pocket visible from her front window. She added: 'It's a nightmare. Now my car is actually just bricked. It's a garden ornament because it won't go into drive. It's sat there since June. 'I've been back and forth with the Insolvency Service but I have no idea about anything. I'm literally at my wit's end. I've got a car I can't move.' Sources with knowledge of the Fisker liquidation said the process was likely to last several more months owing to the 'complicated' nature of the process. And while Ms Simonsen says she has been speaking to members of the Fisker Owners Association - a club set up by those determined to keep their Oceans on the road - she is worried that trying to get the car going again might affect her return. She tried to file a claim as a creditor in Fisker's US insolvency case too - but received a letter informing her that her claim would not be taken forward. 'I've got a beautiful vehicle - if it was working it would be absolutely fine. And I see all these wonderful people having a great time in theirs, but I'm not,' she said. In a stroke of luck she credits to gut instinct, Ms Simonsen still has a car to keep her on the road. She kept her old diesel motor when she got her Fisker after the EV was delivered months ahead of schedule. Unlike her snazzy EV, it actually works - and she says she is unlikely to go electric in the near future while cars like the Ocean continue to exhibit problems. 'I shall be sticking to a fossil fuel vehicle - it has put me off supporting the environment because this is what happens. Electric car ownership is not what it is cracked up to be,' she said. A spokesperson for the Insolvency Service said: 'We are unable to comment on ongoing liquidation proceedings. 'Customers who are owed money by a company in liquidation can find out more information on – including how to register a claim as a creditor if money is outstanding.' Fisker is facing a number of lawsuits in the US after appearing to over-promise with its flashy electric cars - and it's not the first time one of Henrik Fisker's enterprises has gone under. The car designer, who led design on the BMW Z8 sports car, founded his first self-titled firm Fisker Automotive in 2007, producing the Karma range-extended EV. The Karma achieved great public attention for being ahead of its time, appearing on Top Gear. The firm even courted Leonardo DiCaprio as an investor. But production deadlines were missed and the cars were subject to numerous recalls; the firm then lost more than 300 cars to floodwaters wrought by Hurricane Sandy. The firm was liquidated in 2013, with Fisker retaining the trademarks and the remaining assets, including the Karma's design, sold to China's Wanxiang Group. Undeterred, Henrik Fisker courted new investors and founded Fisker Inc in 2016, while the UK firm followed two years later. He had huge ambitions for the firm, with plans for an 'urban' electric vehicle, a sports car and a pick-up truck that ultimately failed to materialise. There was even a plan to give a Fisker to the late Pope Francis, converted into a Popemobile with a glass box from which the pontiff could wave at the faithful. But reports suggested Fisker was spending more on developing and building cars than it was making back through sales. Plagued by issues with the 10,000 Ocean cars that made it into production, it ultimately threw in the towel last summer. A number of unsold Fisker Oceans have since cropped up in the UK, with a convoy of them dumped in Nottingham seven months ago by a dealership after the company went bust. John Pye Auctions has since collected them on instruction from Fisker liquidators and will sell them, along with almost 50 others, at auction in the coming months. Some of them have already gone under the hammer for as little as £15,000, far below their recommended retail price of up to £57,900. But future Fisker owners - even those determined to keep their cars going - will likely struggle in future as part supplies run dry. A deal to transfer Fisker Ocean owners to a new service in a bid to keep updates going ran aground after the firm admitted it could not move them. As for Mr Fisker himself, the Dane has effectively gone to ground since the company filed for bankruptcy. His LinkedIn online CV describes him as a 'risk taking, innovation loving, protocol challenging automotive designer and entrepreneur that's (sic) turns dreams into reality and never gives up'. His last post on the social network, in December 2023, was a boldly worded rebuttal to reports that the company was in trouble as its share price plummeted 75 per cent in two months. 'I believe the negative reports about the company have been overblown,' he said. His CV now describes him as 'chairman and CEO at Fisker Inc until October 2024'.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
46,000 Cybertruck Sales Sure Isn't A Lot For A Truck That Allegedly Had 1 Million+ Reservations
Tesla recalled the Cybertruck again this week, the eighth time it's done so since the electric truck went on sale at the end of 2023. And while some of the recalls have been relatively minor, this particular recall was issued because pieces of metal bodywork keep flying off Cybertrucks, which we can all agree is pretty bad. It also covers 46,096 vehicles, essentially every Cybertruck ever sold. That's a lot of trucks if you're, say, Fisker, but it's also far fewer than you would expect given Tesla's claims of more than a million reservations. Musk also claimed Cybertruck production was initially set up to build 250,000 vehicles per year, and he could eventually double that number. And yet, when it came time for people to actually hand over their money in exchange for a title and some keys, the demand just wasn't there. Sure, Tesla got some orders, and there are plenty of automakers out there that would kill to sell 40,000 units a year, but last year, the Cybertruck barely outsold the Hyundai Santa Cruz, a vehicle that I love to see on the road but also legitimately assumed had maybe two production years max before Hyundai inevitably pulled the plug. Read more: Tesla Cybertrucks Are Rusting Despite Being Made Of Stainless Steel If you know anything about Tesla and its CEO, you already know you can't trust a thing Musk says. Remember when the Cybertruck was supposed to have a stainless steel exoskeleton, and then the production truck ended up just being a basic unibody design with stainless steel panels glued on? Exactly. Design-wise, it looks pretty wild, but the way it's constructed, it isn't that different than that Santa Cruz with an electric powertrain. Could Tesla actually build 250,000 Cybertrucks in a year if it had enough orders? Maybe, but also maybe not. Could Tesla have actually had more than a million reservations at some point? There, I'm less skeptical. A whole lot of people got pretty excited when Musk revealed the Cybertruck, and reservations were only $100. I personally know one person who reserved two that he planned to wrap and use them as rolling billboards for his company. He didn't balk when they announced pricing, either. It's entirely possible Musk exaggerated the number of Cybertruck reservations or announced they'd hit a million before it actually happened, but I just haven't seen enough evidence to suggest the number was fake. The $100 million interest-free loan from reservation-holders was probably a nice boost for Tesla's bottom line, though. There are, of course, plenty of people who would never buy a Cybertruck based on the styling alone, and even more people who refused to support Tesla because of Musk's ultra-far-right politics even before he set up his gaming rig in the White House. The Cybertruck's buyers were never going to be regular people, though. Every single Cybertruck buyer is rich, and that demographic is all about lower taxes and fewer regulations, so you wouldn't think the people who saw the production truck and pricing would walk away just because Musk became a vocal Trump supporter. That family friend, for example, definitely isn't a MAGA die-hard, but he's also probably never voted further left than Libertarian. There's also no reason to believe he'd take issue with Musk's bigotry. That should have been two easy sales for Tesla, and yet, he never went through with it. The CEO moving right should have only helped attract more people who could actually afford to buy one. And yet, Tesla couldn't even sell 100,000 of them after more than a year? How does anyone drop a bag full of money like that? Not even a tenth of the reservation-holders actually put their money where their mouth was. That's just mystifying. Again, I'm happy Tesla hasn't sold more of these things, especially since they're ugly, poorly built and dangerous on the road, but really is impressive just how few Cybertrucks Musk has actually sold, especially with tax credits and discounts added to sweeten the deal. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Karma Lays Out Its (Optimistic) Product Plans Through 2028
Every couple of years we have to check in with Karma to see what they're doing. Now's a good time. Yesterday Karma unveiled yet another new model, a hybrid-electric coupe called the Amaris, based on the third-generation Revero architecture. I saw it at Karma headquarters in Irvine, California, and it looks nice. It's pictured above. It's hard to keep track of all this Karma stuff without a program, so here's a refresher. The current Karma Automotive came about when Henrik Fisker's Fisker Inc. went bankrupt in 2014, due to the bankruptcy of battery supplier A123 and Superstorm Sandy wiping out a bunch of finished Fiskers on a dock in New Jersey. The current Karma Automotive was founded when Chinese auto parts supply giant Wanxiang purchased the assets of Fisker Inc. at a bankruptcy auction. Are we clear on all that? Now have a look at the current and future Karmas, presented on a timeline from now till 2016 Karma Automotive began building a 'new' car called the Revero based on the bones of the former Fisker. In fact, it looked and drove like a Fisker. A few years ago it got a refresh. The Revero four-door four-seater is now in what Karma calls its third generation, with a 28-kWh battery good for not-quite-80 miles of all-electric range. But Karma makes only 160 Reveros a year at its assembly facility in Moreno Valley, California. Soon you'll be able to get a sportier version of the Revero called the Invictus, shown above, but they're only making 30 of that comes the Gyesera hybrid (Karma uses the term EREV for plug-in hybrid, meaning Extended Range Electric Vehicle). The Gyesera is yet another take on the Revero architecture, with four doors and a newer-looking body. Karma said yesterday that the Gyesera will be in production by the end of the year, also in Moreno Valley. The Gyesera four-door was previously shown as a battery-electric, but changing market conditions—i.e., lower-than-expected demand for EVs—forced a return to PHEV/EREV Amaris is the two-door coupe that was revealed yesterday at Karma HQ in Irvine. It will also be a hybrid, with its own take on the Revero architecture wrapped in a hot carbon-fiber body. It'll come out in the fourth quarter of 2026, Karma claims. You can see it at The Quail this summer, complete with an interior, a feature the model displayed at yesterday's program did not is Karma's electric super coupe, with 1,000 hp, 0-60 mph in 3.0 seconds, and a top speed of 180 mph. It even has a range of 250 miles, Karma says. It's going into production in 2027. Karma promises 'otherworldy presence forged by the American spirit,' as well as butterfly doors that 'open with a dramatic flair, reminiscent of a red-carpet arrival.'And finally, the Karma Ivara GT-UV (Grand Touring Utility Vehicle) will arrive in 2028. The Ivara sports near-SUV proportions. Karma says it establishes 'a new segment of multi-terrain capable vehicles, the GT-UV, or Grand Touring Utility Vehicle. Its signature Comet Line draws exotic proportions, projecting an otherworldly boldness unseen before in the ultra-luxury segment.' Will any of it happen? Who knows? Karma president Marcus McCammon, whom we've known since he was product manager of the Dodge Neon SRT-4 more than 20 years ago, says the Moreno Valley facility can make 15,000 vehicles a year when it has three shifts working. He expects Karma Automotive to become profitable by 2028 or 2029. And somehow Karma Automotive has carried on since the company's founding in 2014. Ya just gotta believe!
