2023 Fisker Ocean Extreme Sport Utility 4d on 2040-cars

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Recharge Wrap-up: Tesla hiring new sales executives, A123 focuses on starter batteries

A123 Systems is shifting more of its focus to lithium-ion starter batteries for cars with stop-start systems. The company sees the smaller batteries as a safer, more viable way to bounce back from its recent bankruptcy than by providing battery packs to power EVs. A123 still provides EV batteries to China, and hopes to provide them to Fisker, which is now owned by a mutual parent company, Wanxiang. A123's Detroit facility is currently building starter batteries for Mercedes-Benz, with microhybrid battery production expected in within the next few years. Read more at Automotive News. Tesla Motors Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Service Jerome Guillen is being reassigned to a role in customer satisfaction. After struggling sales in California and China, Tesla is also seeking sales executives for its three major sales regions: North America, Europe and Asia. "Once they are on board, Jerome's focus will be on post- sales activity from delivery to long-term customer care, where he has done an incredible job," says Tesla. For 2014, North America made up about 55 percent of Tesla's sales, while Europe and Asia made up 30 and 15 percent, respectively. Tesla expects those numbers to eventually be distributed evenly, and aims to increase sales by 74 percent this year. Read more at Automotive News. David Noland of Green Car Reports wants Tesla to address a double-pedal problem in the Model S. Noland says that when both the accelerator and brake pedal are pressed at the same time, it can increase the stopping distance, creating unsafe situations. Noland, along with other drivers with large feet, are having problems with this due to the narrow spacing between the pedals. Elon Musk has stated that the Model S limits torque in a double-pedal situation, but Noland's own tests find some inconsistencies. Noland would like to see a change to the firmware to address this problem. Read more at Green Car Reports. Featured Gallery Tesla Model S View 10 Photos Related Gallery 2012 Fisker Karma: Second Drive View 30 Photos News Source: Automotive News, Automotive News, Green Car ReportsImage Credit: Tesla Motors Green Fisker Tesla Green Automakers Safety Electric recharge wrapup

There's a new Karma Revero called the Aliso, and it costs $145,000

There's a slightly more luxurious version of the Karma Revero now, called the Aliso. The name comes from a California beach, and the appearance of the car does a decent job of emulating the aesthetic of a beach as well. On the exterior, you get what Karma calls Laguna Pearl white paint made with layers of glass flakes to give it a shimmering appearance. Carbon fiber wheels are standard with orange brake calipers giving a bit of contrast to the otherwise beach-like colors elsewhere. The interior is beige, or sand-colored if you ask Karma. It's unique from other Reveros in its red burl wood treatment all around. You'll be able to find scripted "Aliso" badging in various spots on the car, but that's pretty much it as far as differences between this and a normal Revero. We can safely classify it as an appearance package, although the carbon fiber wheels are pretty cool. For the car and all the extra goodies you'll pay $145,000. That's $15,000 more than a base Revero with all the same performance metrics. As a reminder, the Revero is a plug-in hybrid vehicle (based off the original Fisker Karma) with a pair of electric motors and 2.0-liter gasoline engine. In total, the system outputs 400 horsepower and 900 pound-feet of torque, shoving it to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds. So is having a unique Revero Aliso worth the extra cash on top of an already expensive vehicle? You may not even be able to choose, because Karma is making 15 Alisos with deliveries set to start in November and go into December. Meanwhile, since we mentioned Fisker: Something we're still waiting on is Fisker's solid-state battery tech it debuted at CES last year. Fisker says it'll be coming to EVs for 2020. Caterpillar seems confident of that too, as the construction equipment company just announced it's investing in Fisker, hoping it can one day take advantage of the electrification tech Fisker manages to develop. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Featured Gallery Karma Revero Aliso Green Fisker Hybrid Luxury Performance Sedan karma revero

Fisker talking to 5 automakers, seeks production: 'We have 2 cars that are almost ready'

  BERLIN — U.S. electric vehicle startup Fisker is negotiating with five carmakers over a partnership to secure additional production capacity for its vehicles, its Chief Executive Henrik Fisker said on Thursday. "We have two cars that are almost ready. We can bring them to market fast — we just need the capacity," Fisker said, speaking to Reuters in Berlin. The CEO told Reuters in May he was exploring partnerships with everyone from suppliers to tech companies to scale up production. On Thursday, he said he was in negotiations with five "traditional car companies" and hoped to pick a partner in the coming months. The California-based startup has one vehicle on the market — an SUV called Ocean, being launched from a factory in Austria operated by a unit of Magna International. Two further models, a pickup and a smaller SUV, are due to be released by 2025. The SUV, called PEAR, will be built with Foxconn in Ohio, but further capacity is needed for both models. Production Fisker Pear View 26 Photos It has so far produced 5,000 units of the Ocean car, according to a September update. Still, it cut its annual production target in August and adjusted pricing in October as it grappled with a slowdown in electric-vehicle demand. The chief executive was confident the company was still on the road to profit, and said it would report a double-digit margin this year, in line with its annual forecast of an 8-12% gross margin for 2023. It is due to release third-quarter results on Monday, after reporting a loss of 25 cents per share in the second quarter.