Karma Automotive's Rapid Growth Prompts Move to a New Home

The electric car startup has come a long way in just two years.

Karma Automotive, a rebooted version of the failed luxury electric car startup Fisker Automotive, is taking over more than 262,000 square feet of space once used by Kawasaki motorcycles and turning it into its own global headquarters.
The move to the massive facility in Irvine, Calif., which won’t begin until the fourth quarter of 2016, illustrates the company’s rapid growth since it was purchased in 2014 by Wanxiang Group.
Just three years ago, Fisker Automotive looked poised for the scrap heap. The company, which was founded by designer and entrepreneur Henrik Fisker in 2007, was out of money despite receiving $1.2 billion from public and private funds.
But Wanxiang Group, a Chinese conglomerate that makes automotive components, snapped up Fisker’s assets for $149.2 million in a bankruptcy auction in 2014. (Wanxiang is the same company that bought failed battery supplier A123 Systems.) Wanxiang moved the automaker’s production equipment from Finland to California and then rebooted the brand with a new name, car, and tech.

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Karma Automotive is now preparing to sell the Revero, an electric hybrid that will be built in a 555,670-square-foot factory in Moreno Valley, Calif. Earlier this month, the company revealed a teaser photo and a few details of the Revero, a sporty sedan with a solar roof and an updated drivetrain, electrical controls, and infotainment system. The official launch of the vehicle, and when the public can begin reserving it, is Sept. 8. The company has been building the Revero since April and has not said when it will deliver the cars. The electric hybrid vehicles are currently undergoing testing.
Just 14 months ago, the company had about 240 people working at its headquarters in Costa Mesa, less than 60 miles from its factory. At the time, a spokeswoman said the company expected to create 150 full-time manufacturing jobs at the factory.

These Two Companies Are Teaming Up to Build Self-Driving Cars:

Today, Karma Automotive has more than 625 employees who work at its factory and offices. About 125 people work at the Moreno Valley factory. The remaining 500 employees work in engineering, supplier quality, sales, and marketing at its offices in California and Michigan. Its Detroit office employs about 20 people with plans to reach close to 100 people.
“We’re busting at the seams here,” Karma’s chief marketing officer Jim Taylor told Fortune. “People were literally sitting in the halls before we rented a second facility about a block away.” Now that space is filling up.
The company wants to move to this larger facility in Irvine to accommodate existing staff and future growth, said Taylor. Karma Automotive will have more than 700 employees by the end of 2016 and is on target to approach 800 in 2017.
Parent company Wanxiang appears to have even bigger plans for Karma—beyond the 3,000 or so luxury Reveros it plans to make. Wanxiang filed an application for an environmental review for a $375 million factory in Hangzhou, China that could make as many as 50,000 electric cars per year, according to a Bloomberg report in August. The application indicates that most of those cars could be a cheaper electric vehicle called the Atlantic.

Car scares

We had a scare last Monday. My wife came back from University and informed me that there was a strange sound coming from below the car. It's always scary when I hear stuff like that because of the extremely high cost of spare parts and service charges here in the UK.

There had been quite heavy rains and on the way back my wife found a stretch of the road flooded. She drove through it and came through safely even though she noticed several cars had stalled on the road. However, right after that a strange sound started emanating from the car. I took the torch and checked under the car - there was something hanging underneath. At first I thought it might be some box that had got stuck there but on closer inspection realised that it was some part of the car.

Next day, I drove down to Taxi & car repairs on Stony Stanton road. Found that it was closed. I then tried two more workshops but none had their ramps free. I suddenly remembered TPS Autos Ltd in Foleshill. According to the old timers here, the Punjabi owner charges a bit higher than the rest but as I had no choice, I drove there. Fortunately, he has a ramp empty and we quickly found the problem.

The heat shield over the exhaust had come out, probably by the force of water, and was scrapping the road. Pritpal Singh did some temporary repairs (just pushing it back into place) and informed me that I could just take it out and won't do any harm. I was reluctant but he informed me that a new one would cost me around £100. So I just told him to leave it as it was.

Highly optimised UK user car site.

If you are looking for a used car in the UK, I know the perfect place to go to. No! You don't have to go there physically. All you have to do is put on your computer and go to BuyYourCar.com and search for Used Cars. This relatively new site has some great features that will appeal to both dealers and people looking for used cars. they believe that advertising online is more than just a simple listing and picture.

The site allows you to search their listings by make, model, details, price range, distance from postcode and type of seller (private, dealer or both). The results are automatically sorted by latest offers, price (lowest or highest) distance. The distance option is a welcome feature as we want to search for a car as near to our house as possible.


The site provides some great tips for people considering to buy a car, namely in deciding the value of buying a used car. There is a list of questions, which we should ask the seller, how to inspect a used car and so on. There is even a Used-Car-Buyer's Checklist which is absolutely essential.

As for the dealers who advertise on the site, they get 'Standard listings', 'Individual Listings', 'Dedicated pages in the site' and 'Dedicated pages that list stock by Make'.

All cars advertised are also entered into the NEW Regional Search which allows customers to search for cars in their area. For example in Birmingham.

Some other great features include an online enquiry forms and Google location maps with interactive directions.

This site has been highly optimised for Google search and thus highly recommended if you are selling used cars. If you don't believe me, search for the terms "Used Cars UK" on Google and find out for yourself.

Suzuki assembles Swift in Malaysia

Suzuki Malaysia Automobile Sdn Bhd launched its locally-assembled Suzuki Swift 1.5L on the 4th of July (Wednesday). The
DRB-Hicom Bhd's subsidiary will produce the car (the first) at the company's RM20 million plant in Pekan, Pahang.

picture from the Edge Daily showing DRB-Hicom Group MD Datuk Hj Mohd Khamil Jamil giving the thumbs-up at the launch. Photo by Mohd Izwan Mohd Nazam

According to Suzuki Malaysia Automobile's chief executive officer Bastamam Hamzah, the company aims to produce an initial 300 units the Swift monthly.
The model will be available in four colours, namely, bayside blue, silver grey, supreme red and tranquillity black. It is priced at RM69,888 on the road without insurance and will be available in the market from August.

Related Link: Bername report.

More about the Fiat 500

As promised in my last post, here is more info about the new Fiat 500.

It is based on a shortened Panda and will come out in two versions - the 500 Cabriolet and the hatchback.

The Fiat 500 is a two-seater, with room at the back for the folding roof and luggage.

There will be three engine options, namely a 1.1-litre petrol, a 1.2-litre petrol and a 1.3-litre Multijet diesel.

The new Fiat will be built at their factory in Poland.

Hey someone is wearing my t-shirt

Check out the link here.

If you are an auto enthusiast, you might want to check out my online store.

The Fiat 500

Fiat today launched the Cinquecento, which means "500" in Italian in Turin today.

This is a new version of the original three-door Cinquecento on it's 50th birthday. It is expected to be priced around €10,000 (approx. $13,600).

They will have a live press conference 9.00 a.m. to 10.30 a.m live online from the PalaIsozaki in Turin at the Fiat 500 site.

Hope to get pictures and more information tomorrow.