switches on steering wheel
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Wow, toyturbo. Way to take a thread off topic.
It was already published somewhere that some future version of the Karma would eventually get the Nina drivetrain. But as far was we know the Nina drivetrain doesn't exist anywhere but in CAD, and likely isn't finalized. And given that the Nina is likely pushed to 2014, who knows when that drivetrain will make it in the Karma. Personally I think Fisker should just focus on refining the Karma. Come up with a higher performance, more custom integrated drivetrain and put it in the Karma instead of waiting for the Nina. Fix the command center issues.
It was already published somewhere that some future version of the Karma would eventually get the Nina drivetrain. But as far was we know the Nina drivetrain doesn't exist anywhere but in CAD, and likely isn't finalized. And given that the Nina is likely pushed to 2014, who knows when that drivetrain will make it in the Karma. Personally I think Fisker should just focus on refining the Karma. Come up with a higher performance, more custom integrated drivetrain and put it in the Karma instead of waiting for the Nina. Fix the command center issues.
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That would be a fine strategy if Fisker wanted to be a specialty manufacturer selling 4000-6000 cars per year. But they wouldn't need 45 dealers in the US if that were their plan. Without a higher volume car like the Atlantic coming, most of our dealers would never have commited to Fisker. There just isn't enough profit in selling a low volume/single model brand.doug said:
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AFAIK, the Surf is on indefinite hold. We have to recognize that Fisker is still a startup with limited resources. While they will continue to make software improvements to the Karma, they can't afford to iterate on the drivetrain. It is much more important to their success to use their scarce capital to bring a higher volume platform to market with the Atlantic.doug said:
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I think the plan always was to transfer new technology developed from Nina/Atlantic to the Karma power train eventually, but that's going to be after the new model has been out for a while and gotten properly debugged. At the moment, the Karma's drive train is the most advanced and most reliable of the group, so it's going to be the one being made for a while.dennis said:
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The other point about drivetrains is that it is very expensive to change them because you have to go through the emission certification process again in every country where you plan to sell the car. So typically drivetrains are only changed when a new model is introduced or when a model is changed/updated every 5-6 years.
I was trying to think of when a manufacturer changed drivetrains in an existing model. The only recent one I could think of was BMW moving from the N54 twin turbo motor in x35's to the N55 single turbo. They did this because it improved fuel economy 5%.
I was trying to think of when a manufacturer changed drivetrains in an existing model. The only recent one I could think of was BMW moving from the N54 twin turbo motor in x35's to the N55 single turbo. They did this because it improved fuel economy 5%.
Last I heard, the Surf was a go and the Sunset was on hold indefinitely.Fabulist said:
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I was thinking particularly about the EV components rather than the ICE related stuff. For example the inverters seem oversided like they're using older technology. They could probably do better with SiC or GaN IBJTs. But even if they didn't change the internals, they could really use some better custom integrated packaging.dennis said:
Tesla upgraded the Roadster drivetrain after only 500 cars, reducing the cost and shaving another few tenths off the 0 to 60.
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