Fisker prevails in Tesla tech theft claim fight It may lack the romance of Jarndyce vs Jarndyce, but it seems that first blood in the nasty little California 'leccy car legal spat has gone to Fisker. Back in April, Tesla sued Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker alleging he had nicked Tesla technology and incorporated it into the forthcoming $80,000 Fisker Karma four-door hybrid über- …
What's going on here?
"By combining a fully charged battery and a full tank of gas, drivers should be able to get around 100mpg and a range of 620 miles."
You talk about gas which I suppose is meant to be petrol or is this a Yank article in which case the 100mpg would be in US gallons, or did you just get it mixed up?
...that is one of the most godawful ugly cars I have ever seen. It would be okay except for the front grill which is hideous. It has the same effect as a super model who grins to reveal rotten teeth. It looks like The Joker, which in turn reminds me of clowns, and then PeeWee's big adventure, and that's just horrible. Clowns are disgusting, evil creatures, and should not be allowed anywhere in public.
I can't help but wonder what psycho thought that would be a good idea.
It's wild stab in the dark this one. On one level it does try to present an alternative to traditional big thirsty IC power but then the ego lands and the Big Chief decides he can do really good design too. Someone really needs to tell him that he is not Sir William Lyons. Not even a fraction of the talent. Maybe then he'll invest in good design instead of commissioning photocalls with him standing in front of his little toy like an utter cock. But he won't as his ego is rampant and then he'll lose the plot, the firm goes titsup, alternative power loses yet more credibility and people lose their jobs.
And that's the really annoying part.
"It may lack the romance of Jarndyce vs Jarndyce, but it seems that first blood in the nasty little California 'leccy car legal spat has gone to Fisker."
I would have thought that the mention of California in the first sentence would have indicated to you that this is indeed a "Yank" article.
I was about to contest, but then I looked at the front image again and I must say you are perfectly right. They should definitely do something about changing that grill.
That said, the rest of the car is gorgeous, just like a supermodel indeed. I wouldn't mind having one.
But with a different grill.
This market is not like that for Dyson vacuum cleaners.
Cars need maintenance, servicing, spare parts etc.
Some giant car company is going to have to buy one of these two innovators before any real volumes ship - they will then have a backup network. Or they could aim to be like Morgan cars rather than BMW. Aside from that, these cars will be bought by people who think $80,000 is a small amount of money to look good/impress/improve environmental credentials.
Maybe seeing as we (the British consumer) have to put up with so many snouts in the petroleum trough as it were, we could refer to our fuel economy figures as mpig ? (Miles Per Imperial Gallon for the confused), although no doubt Brussels would have a word or 3 to say about that :(
I do love the statement about range saying that 60% of average commutes means "most" of them. Technically yes (as most is the superlative of many), but surely it'd be more transparent to say "a little over half". "Most" to many (if you pardon the pun) infers "almost all". I'd be more impressed if they had managed to dump the IC engine completely and increase the range - until then, this is nothing more than a gimmick in any case.
The Q drive system sounds exactly like the powertrain of Deisel electric locomotives the world over. A stonking big engine running an electric transmission system via a generator. The only "Innovation" is to hang a battery on there as a buffer.
I might be wrong, but the way the Tesla works is pure high tech plug and play milk float.
So what are they getting in a tizzy about? Competition perhaps?
And a bargain at that. Shucks, at that price I'll have to buy two for me, a couple for the other half, and a handful for the sprog.
Considering I just had to replace a regular car battery a few weeks ago; can someone tell me how they isolate the batteries / cells on these so that (1) they can all fully charge without impacting the others and (2) if one goes bad it can't drain down (or burn or....) the others? Any chance they will ever get these to the point where when one goes bad you just pop it out and plop in a new one? I know, I live in a dream world.
AC: It's all done with electronics. Lots of little black boxes to monitor the system, make sure that all the electrons do as they're told, that sort of thing.
I don't have a problem with the styling. It's not much more extreme than, say, a Mazda RX-8. And I do like that it's its own car, rather than being a GM clonebox like the Volt has turned into. (Yeah, "aerodynamics", that must be why the Volt looks exactly like the compacts we're seeing from Chevy and Pontiac...)
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