USA TODAY International Edition
He’s back: Henrik Fisker taking on Tesla with sexy, all-electric EMotion
If a $100,000 tech-packed, trendsetting Tesla Model S sedan isn’t quite cool enough for you, Henrik Fisker requests a moment of your time.
The heralded automobile designer of the iconic BMW Z8 and a gaggle of Aston Martins is back in the car game with the electric Fisker EMotion, which he plans to unveil Tuesday at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Remember Fisker? Backed by a federal loan, he launched his own car company making a sleek plug-in hybrid sedan, the Karma, about the time Tesla was trying to get its Model S sedan off the ground. But production stopped in 2013 after battery woes and financial issues led to bankruptcy.
This time, Fisker’s rakish new sedan boasts upward-opening gullwingstyle doors for both front- and rearseat passengers, a modernist interior, 400-mile battery range and a $129,000 base price. The EMotion also promises to come with sensors critical to selfdriving.
“I pushed myself to move car design forward without losing what we love about the automotive shape,” Fisker tells USA TODAY while speaking by phone from the backseat of a sapphire-red EMotion as it was being set up in Las Vegas.
Among the EMotion’s specs: allwheel drive, massive 24-inch Pirelli tires, five Quanergy sensors for autonomous driving, carbon fiber and aluminum chassis construction and a fourzone electrically adjustable tinted roof. The car is 16 feet long and 5 feet high, or roughly the same as a Tesla Model S.
Although the EMotion initially will come with traditional lithium-ion batteries, Fisker says he is further looking to distinguish his product through the development of proprietary flexible solid-state battery technology, which would improve range, increase safety and speed up recharging times.
“Consumers want choices when it comes to cars,” he says. “We believe there is plenty of room for newcomers, especially in the EV space.”
Fredric Lambert, editor of EV site Electrek, is blunt. “Henrik never misses in terms of design,” he says. “But until we see a production car and a clear path to production itself, many will see this vehicle as vaporware.”