Luxury Hybrid Maker Fisker Raises $65 Million
When we saw the Fisker Karma plug-in electric hybrid concept car at the Detroit auto show earlier this year, we were pretty skeptical it would ever be built. But today the company announced it has raised a very real $65 million in funding. Most of the money comes from Qatar Investment Autority, which describes itself thus on its website: “The QIA was founded by the State of Qatar in 2003 to strengthen the country's economy by diversifying into new asset classes.”
Qatar is a small, wealthy country bordering Saudi Arabia. It exports both oil and natural gas. It’s interesting that the country is investing in a hybrid manufacturer with so much already invested in oil.
The Fisker Karma, however, is not all about fuel efficiency. It will be a $80,000 sport sedan with a sub-6-second 0-60 speed that works in a way similar to the upcoming Chevy Volt. Check out the link below for a full photo gallery.
Previous
Subscribe to our feed
Email us your tips!
When a "big auto" company builds a new car, I often read it took y years and x billion dollars to develop. Then I see small companies like this building something from scratch with a few tens of millions, what gives?
It's all scale Pat. If you're only building a few hundred a year you don't need to hire thousands of employees, build factories that can produce 100s of thousands of cars etc.
However, there aren't many car companies I know of that build in such a way from scratch. Tesla is still new. You'd have Lotus I guess, Bentley, Ferrari etc.