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Fisker teases Ronin GT four-door before August 3 investor day

Fisker feels it's far enough along in the automaking process and has enough product in the near-term pipeline to hold an investor day. That will come on August 3. Whetting appetites, the CEO teased the Ronin GT that's been in the works for years. We believe this is an evolution of the Fisker EMotion that Fisker talked about in 2018, then a coupe with novel butterfly rear doors, a 400-mile estimated range, and a price around $129,000. What we're seeing now has come out of the Magic Works outpost set up in England and run by Aston Martin's former head of special projects David King. Henrik's caption with the Instagram tease was, "Fisker Ronin, All Electric super GT! Reveal August 3rd! Super fast & space for 5! The ultimate long distance Grand Touring car with an anticipated range of 600 miles!" This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Fyi, that's 600 miles of range on the WLTP cycle. Plenty of distance still, although it's a small climb down from the targeted 660 miles of range we heard about in May 2022.  Fisker only calls this an electric grand tourer in the Insta post. On the Fisker site, the car is called "the world's first all-electric, four-door convertible, GT Sports Car." There's a shut line across the roof, placed where the absent B-pillar would otherwise make itself known. Another shutline separates the center panel from the C-pillar, just where one would expect a three-piece hardtop to separate so that it can fold into the trunk. Assuming this comes to pass, the Ronin will be the first and last entry in the four-door convertible GT market in the U.S., and the only genuine hardtop convertible on sale here (as opposed to the targa setups on cars like the Chevrolet Corvette and McLaren 750S).   In terms of specifications, all that's been announced is that the Ronin will offer "extremely high levels of performance" and serve as "a showcase for [Fisker's] internal engineering, powertrain and software capabilities." The vehicle battery's been integrated into the structure, and active aero is going to play a part. The company's promised to keep the price below $200,000.     Investor Day will also show the production Fisker Pear city vehicle, and we hear the Alaska pickup, based on the Ocean, might make a cameo. Fiskerati reports Fisker having said of the pickup, "that’s really our take on a very unique super sporty pickup truck.

Bob Lutz predicts Fisker-based VL Destino will world's fastest sedan [w/video]

Ever look at an EV or a dedicated hybrid and wonder what it'd be like with a conventional, high-output V8 under the hood instead of all those batteries and circuit boards? Bob Lutz and Gilbert Villareal did when it came to the Fisker Karma. The result is the Destino from VL Automotive – a vehicle that Lutz says could be the fastest sedan in the world. The Destino was born like a phoenix rising from the ashes of Fisker Automotive and its shapely Karma – an aborted and very costly attempt at making a dedicated hybrid luxury sedan, undertaken by noted automotive designer Henrik Fisker. The project ultimately faltered, but Lutz and Villareal formed VL Automotive to pick up the pieces and put it back together. Only when they did, they got rid of the hybrid propulsion system and replaced it with the 6.2-liter supercharged LS9 V8 from the previous Corvette ZR1, mated to a six-speed automatic transmission. With 630 horsepower, a svelte shape and 1,000 pounds trimmed off the curb weight, the VL Destino is expected to top out at or around 200 miles per hour. According to Lutz in his article for Fortune magazine, that would make it "among the fastest four-door cars in the world," but in the accompanying video below, he goes even further to say that the the Destino "most likely will be the world's fastest four-door sedan." To claim the top honor, though, it'll have to vanquish the 204-mile-per-hour Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat – another four-door sedan with a supercharged V8 made by an American automaker... one over which Lutz used to preside, no less. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Fisker, Quantum pairing up to relaunch Karma PHEV

The upcoming relaunched Fisker Karma will look a lot like the old one. Turns out, the brains of the car will share a lot with the old Karma as well. Fisker (and its new owner, Wanxiang) and Quantum Technologies have announced a deal worth over $5 million. Quantum is going to license its plug-in hybrid control software to Fisker in exchange for $2 million this month and another $2 million a year from now. The first payment will be used to get the software into the relaunched Karma and the next payment is for "Fisker Auto Group's planned Atlantic vehicle line." Fisker has the option to pay more by October 27, 2016 to "acquire joint-ownership of the hybrid control software for the Karma, Atlantic and future platforms." There's another part of the deal worth "approximately $1.35 million" for software development services over the coming year. If this all has a somewhat familiar ring to you, you might be thinking about the $10.2 million that Fisker gave Quantum five years ago to develop the PHEV powertrain when it was still called the "Q-Drive plug-in hybrid system." The fact that we're talking about a relaunch now tells us something about how that all turned out. Maybe it'll be better this time, if those 250 bugs get squashed. Quantum Technologies Enters into License Agreement with Fisker Automotive and Technologies Group LLC to provide Plug-In Hybrid Control Software to Support Re-Launch of the Fisker Karma Vehicle - Control Software Agreement to provide Quantum with more than $5.0 million over the coming year - Control software license to cover Fisker Karma and Atlantic series with option for joint-ownership for these and other future platforms LAKE FOREST, Calif., Nov. 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc. ("Quantum") (NASDAQ: QTWW), a global leader in natural gas storage systems, integration, and vehicle system technologies, today announced it has entered into an agreement with Fisker Automotive and Technologies Group LLC ("Fisker Auto Group") pursuant to which Quantum will license its plug-in hybrid control software to Fisker Auto Group and, in return, will receive an initial payment of $2.0 million on or before November 27, 2014, and a second payment of $2.0 million on or before October 27, 2015.