[Dutch]

The Karma has always been priced too low in the US. Compared to Europe and compared to other cars with the same features. Everyone always compares the price of the Fisker to that of the Porsche Panamera. But once you've configured a Panamera or even an expensive Audi, Mercedes or BMW with the same options that are standard on the Karma (navigation, park assist, camera, voice control, all-leather, bigger wheels, LEDs, etc, etc) those cars become much more expensive.

And let's not forget that the Karma is loaded with expensive technology (huge battery, electric engines, generator, solar roof). It is amazing that it is competing in price with much less advanced cars.

And let's look at the economic side. Fisker has to make money to survive. Ofcourse they will sell more cars at a lower price, but if every sale is a loss (especially the US-cars) then eventually they will run out of money.

 

[Dutch]

I wouldn't base my judgement of a car on one or two test drives of maybe 20-30 minutes. My dealer told me that the actual production cars are so much better compared to the pre-production cars. He - and I - drove a pre-production car that was produced in April and he drove a production car that was produced in September. According to him the difference is huge, it handles even better that it already did. Let's wait until we have all driven real production cars for a few months before we conclude whether the Karma offers value for money or not.

 

[Dutch]

One year from now that $80K Model S will probably not cost $80K anymore.

 

[Dutch]

The 300 mile Model S still lists for $77K. The $70k price they quote is after the Fed rebate. Since they haven't published option pricing yet, I rounded up to try to get an apples to apples with the Karma.

For all things Fisker has done wrong, at least they never used the 'trick' of posting a price after rebate for the Karma (they did for the Nina).

 

[Dutch]

I don't think there are anywhere near 3000 "confirmed" orders now. My bet is the production of all the current confirmed configurations is nearly complete. We've been hearing 3000 forever. I bet many of the original 3000 deposit holders have dropped out mainly due to total lack of consideration from Fisker. Even Brian was on the verge and he's only had a deposit up for a year. If the deposit holder number was really impressive Fisker would be touting it. I bet it's even less than the original 3000 and that's with demos at the dealerships. When there are big management shake ups, there is always an untold background story. You have to believe that if they had 7,000 to 10,000 new deposits, they would be publicizing that.

BillyO

At the moment production has reached #1000. A lot of cars are going to be produced in January, February and March. Anyone ordering now is looking at delivery in about half a year. That means Fisker still has a lot of orders in the books.

It is not strange that the number has stayed at 3000 for a long time. Not much happened over the last few months in the form of publicity to attract more customers. Some people will have dropped out, but others will have stepped in (maybe because of the scattered pieces of publicity like Leonardo DiCaprio, Two and a half men, the Fisker Tour). But there are still a lot of people out there who do not know about the existence of the car. The demos have been at the dealers for no more than a few weeks, many dealers outside of the US are still waiting for their demos. Publicity has been low.

All that is going to change. More and more magazines and car shows will be able to get their hands on a car for test drives, and I expect the reviews to be very positive. But more importantly, every week there will be more Karma's on the road and there will be more people seeing this stunning car. The effect? Look what a few visits to Cars & Coffee generates in attention, and then multiply that by a few thousand. Every Karma-owner will be the focus of attention wherever he or she goes, all the time. Every Karma will make hundreds of people enthusiastic or at least curious about this brand and this car.

I heard that - still unconfirmed - Brad Pitt has been spotted test driving a Karma, when he was visiting The Netherlands this week. If more and more celebrities choose this car, it could really become a snowball.

And there are still a lot markets that haven't even been tapped, like Asia.

So there is still a lot of potential for this car and this company.

 

[Dutch]

I heard that - still unconfirmed - Brad Pitt has been spotted test driving a Karma, when he was visiting The Netherlands this week.

Well, that report really needed confirmation. Brad Pit was completely fake, but luckily the Karma wasn't (looks like this was a viral started by Fisker or by the shop owners in this expensive shopping street):

Video here (translation of the title: Fake Brad Pitt, but what a Karma!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDLpCDoaH8o