Today I went for my second test drive (because heavy rain spoiled the first one). Well, it didn't happen. Because of a miscommunication I found the car in the garage being prepped for an exhibit tomorrow, and too many things were disconnected or taken off for the car to be taken for a drive. I now have a new appointment in two weeks time.
But I learned some more about deliveries, and that didn't make me happy. With my production start on August 23 and expected production and delivery time of 4-6 weeks, I was hoping for delivery in early October. But I was told now that they are not expecting delivery of the first car in The Netherlands before the end of October, so I won't be getting mine (I'm second in line) before early November. That's an extra month again :-(
There are several reasons. The delay in the EPA-certification is the first obstacle (European certification also hinges on this). Second problem is that they are still upgrading the cars with the new exhausts and especially with new software, which provides improvements as well as solutions for any glitches that are occuring during test drives (also the test drives we make!).
But there is good news too. The production cars - this time the real ones - will be much better cars than the ones we are now test driving, I was told. And those are already very good. My dealer said to expect notable improvements. Second piece of good news: many cars have already been built!! There are rows and rows of finished cars, many in silver (SE's?), and many others in advanced stages of construction. But they simply cannot be shipped yet, mainly because of the updates they are getting (exhausts, software) and the certification process. So once the factory gets the green light, there could be a flood wave of Karma's coming our way.
[hr]
I see Green Car Reports is now more or less saying the same thing (about the large numbers of produced Karma's that are waiting at the factory for the moment they can legally be shipped and sold):
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1066160_fisker-karma-customer-deliveries-maybe-october-or-november
At least this extra delay provides Fisker with the opportunity/time to get these cars up-to-date with the latest hardware and software improvements before they get shipped. Or as 'our' Johan Cruyff would say: 'Every disadvantage has its advantage'.