These really are two different types of cars. The Fisker is a plug in hybrid that will go 30-50 miles on battery before buring oil.
The Tesla goes 200+ miles and never burns any gas. The new sedan will go 300 miles.
Fisker's car is EXACTLY the same technology as the plugin Prius--which you can install for $10k on a used Prius (which would cost $15-20k).
If you drive under 50 miles a day (which some folks do) you're better off spending $25-30k on a plug in Prius today than waiting to drop $90k on the same thing from Fisker.
If you want to go 200-300 miles you should wait for the $50k Model S from Tesla.
Whats unfortunate is that hydrogen technology offers benefits over the electric cars, but for some reason the government isn't investing in it that much. Hydrogen doesn't lose its charge over time, a tank of H is analagous to a tank of gas (in terms of miles,) and we have the ability to produce a lot of hydrogen cheaply, and in a renewable fashion. What happens when these companies use battery technology that's up to date and not 20 years old? Electric cars are merely a stop-gap when 80% of our electricity is generated using fossil fuels. Honda has a hydrogen car on the market. $465 million to build hydrogen infrastructure would go a long way to having people adopt a viable technology.
Both of them are just wiring together about a thousand laptop batteries and then sticking the whole thing on a motor. The first one to get a reliable, new battery technology into a car will win whatever grudge they have going now.
@Pope John Peeps II: It's actually not trivial even going with laptop cells. First you have to balance all the cells properly or you risk over charging them. Then there is the extensive safety features like 2 fuses for each cell, one fuse and a microcontroller for each module of 621 cells and for the whole pack, as well as a variety of sensors for acceleration, smoke, humidity, etc; this is esp. necessary for laptop cells since they are the only type of lithium battery which have a chance of catching on fire/ exploding so you must have a very good safety system in place if you want to pass FMVSS with laptop batteries. Then you have to run coolant and control the temperature. You also have the battery charging management to control the charge depth of the cells for cell longevity. Of course you have a whole bunch of computers on board to control all of this. Tesla also did a lot of work on traction control and power control for the motor. The way they implemented their regen braking gets a lot of good reviews. The reason they go with laptop cells is so far they still provide the best energy density and they are the only lithium cells made in enough volume today to make a good amount of EVs in the absence of automotive ready lithium cells. I imagine with their deal with Daimler that they will be moving to the newer cells Daimler is using if it makes sense.
So it is not as trivial as the garage conversion that everyone makes it to be (strapping some batteries together and putting it on top of a motor). And you can't ignore their contribution to igniting the current interest in EVs.
On Fisker though, I don't think they are using laptop cells. They basically contracted out all their drive train engineering to Quantum Technologies for the Karma and Sunset. The bulk of the money is going to be used for their third model ($40k) in the US, while the rest goes to US suppliers for their Karma.
As for the rivalry, isn't that even better, since competition means they will be trying to do better than each other, which ultimately results in a better product.
For comparison, DeLorean Motor Company made approximately 9,000 DMC-12s in two years.
The Roadster is a done, working, deal: a moderately successful breakthrough performance car from a brand-new American car company. The Model S is a far bigger bet, but the prototype (above) is the one of the most handsome recent USA car designs.
You forgot to mention that they actually turned a profit last quarter too. It's not much, but I would think between being a profitable independent car company while almost every other major car company is losing money, and the fact that they've got nearly half a billion in loans, people would stop the knee-jerk bashing.
Tesla's resilience in spite of these many setbacks has convinced me that they're for real. There will be Tesla Roadsters on the road and this is the formation of a car company, with all the attendant dirty/sexy realities. This is what founding a company is like - tumult, doubt, legal trouble, late nights, hand-wringing, and delays. They've actually managed to survive so much that I can't conceive of them failing now.
@Unsolicited Advice: Might I suggest reading up on DeLorean Motor Cars (1975-1982, RIP)? They had waitlists for cars and the Britsh government giving them funding.
DeLorean had product/quality issues. That's next. I wouldn't invest until I drove one that rolled off a factory line on a Friday, but their momentum is positive.
@Unsolicited Advice: These guys have a lot of problems (have been studying one of their battery suppliers). My bet is they sell out to someone or go bust - not many people looking to buy $50K sedans, green or not. They are a niche at best.
Ryan Tate: at what point will you drop this (now-bordering on the bizarre) obsession with the character assassination of Elon Musk? It's just corny -- whatever the guy's personal shortcomings, he's deeply involved in bankrolling clean energy, space science (and exploration), and internet innovation. Which is much more than I can say for you.
1. Harvard University
2. Doughnuts
3. A constitutional monarchy
4. Stuffed animals
5. Pizza Hut
6. The Indigenous peoples of North America
7. The subway sandwich
8. The ampersand
Yeah. Their full name is Daimler Benz Over. (Lame, I know, but I write my own material. And by no means do I mean to cast aspersions on those who like to bend over for any reason.)
09/29/09
The Tesla goes 200+ miles and never burns any gas. The new sedan will go 300 miles.
Fisker's car is EXACTLY the same technology as the plugin Prius--which you can install for $10k on a used Prius (which would cost $15-20k).
If you drive under 50 miles a day (which some folks do) you're better off spending $25-30k on a plug in Prius today than waiting to drop $90k on the same thing from Fisker.
If you want to go 200-300 miles you should wait for the $50k Model S from Tesla.
09/28/09
09/28/09
09/28/09
So it is not as trivial as the garage conversion that everyone makes it to be (strapping some batteries together and putting it on top of a motor). And you can't ignore their contribution to igniting the current interest in EVs.
On Fisker though, I don't think they are using laptop cells. They basically contracted out all their drive train engineering to Quantum Technologies for the Karma and Sunset. The bulk of the money is going to be used for their third model ($40k) in the US, while the rest goes to US suppliers for their Karma.
As for the rivalry, isn't that even better, since competition means they will be trying to do better than each other, which ultimately results in a better product.
09/21/09
09/21/09
08/19/09
"There will be Tesla Roadsters on the road"
??! You've been snowed by Gawker's Tesla hostility. Tesla put 109 Roadsters in customers' hands in July alone, ...
For comparison, DeLorean Motor Company made approximately 9,000 DMC-12s in two years.
The Roadster is a done, working, deal: a moderately successful breakthrough performance car from a brand-new American car company. The Model S is a far bigger bet, but the prototype (above) is the one of the most handsome recent USA car designs.
08/19/09
08/19/09
08/19/09
Not a bad idea if you consider future recruiting needs for people with lots of big talk and very little substance.
08/19/09
08/19/09
08/19/09
DeLorean had product/quality issues. That's next. I wouldn't invest until I drove one that rolled off a factory line on a Friday, but their momentum is positive.
08/19/09
08/19/09
07/29/09
07/29/09
07/29/09
07/29/09
07/29/09
07/29/09
1. Harvard University
2. Doughnuts
3. A constitutional monarchy
4. Stuffed animals
5. Pizza Hut
6. The Indigenous peoples of North America
7. The subway sandwich
8. The ampersand
06/23/09
06/23/09
There could be trickle-down effects to Poison and Warrant.
06/23/09
06/23/09
And cherry pie futures.
06/22/09
06/22/09