Guess it’s getting ugly with allegations and rumors about Tesla and Fisker going to court. According to Automotive News (subscription required), Tesla is suing Fisker for breach of contract. Tesla had hired Fisker to design the interior and exterior of its upcoming WhiteStar electric sedan. The suit accuses Fisker of doing a substandard job in order to stall the development of the WhiteStar while stealing trade secrets, business plans, and engineering data in order to develop their own car. The prototype of that car, the Fisker Karma, was unveiled in Detroit in January.

Someone’s probably going down in flames before this is all said and done. Here’s an article from AutoBlog:

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/04/15/tesla-files-suit-against-fisker-automotive/

4/16/08 Update - Then Tesla gets sued by Magna:

http://jalopnik.com/380438/another-twist-tesla-sued-by-magna-powertrain

This is becoming a soap opera. Let’s see more cars please…

Fisker Karma Debut in Detroit

Saw this story about the Fisker Karma and had to comment. I'm cautiously optimistic that they will deliver as announced. It seemingly came out of nowhere in a very short amount of time. Last I heard Fisker had just finished the two BMW and Mercedes based coachbuild series, and was starting on a new car project.

It's a gorgeous set of photos. I wonder how much regenerative braking it will do. There are some mighty big conventional disc brakes behind those wheels. Anyway, it reminds me of the BMW Concept CS car shown in Shanghai and I would love to see it on the road before 2010.

Even more significant, I want to see independent companies successfully producing electric cars, which would mean the commercial availability of electric powertrains. That would be a huge boost to the industry. And it would take away many of the reasons the established manufacturers have not built electric cars on a large scale.