Electric cars are set to be dominant in the next decade. A new rival to popularly known electric maker, Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), has risen, and the company goes by the name, Karma Automotive.
The new company which was birthed from the ashes of the fallen Fisker Karma, a company that bankrupted three years will begin rolling out their production line from their California factory. The factory is expected to produce about 3000 cars annually. The cars which are known as the Karma Reveros will be in direct competition with the Tesla cars, and they are four-door luxury electric sedans that will be going for $100,000.
The company is now part of a wider array of companies which have been aiming at making California ground zero for the electric car market. The other companies include the popular known Tesla, Atieva, BYD and Faraday Future. Just as the three latter companies on the list, the company is also backed by Chinese money. After going bankrupt in 2014, the company was purchased by Wanxiang Group. The Group is a Chinese auto parts heavyweight and also owns the A123 battery company that used to supply power packs for the Fisker cars.
Faraday Future is also Chinese owned. The company recently announced its plans to build cars in Nevada at the $1 billion facilities, and also another factory located in California but smaller in size. Chinese entrepreneur Jia Yueting owns it. BYD has 160 employees at its Lancaster plant and builds electric buses is owned by the Chinese company BYD Auto Co. Atieva is a Silicon Valley electric vehicle company which is owned by the Beijing Automotive Industry Corp, which is Chinese state-owned.
The new Reveros car that the company would be making is expected to be the same with its predecessor, the Karma. However, the new car will have its own rear and front fascia design. It will also be powered by the same A123 battery that was in the Karma, and pretty much will have the same interior and exterior components as the Karma’s car, which was built by the famous and honored car designer, Henrik Fisker.
In its heyday, the Karma won the Automobile Magazine’s Design of the Year award back in 2011. Top Gear magazine also named it the Luxury Car of the Year in 2011.
The new chief marketing officer of Karma, Jim Taylor said the company was loved and revered in its peak days. Taylor, who is an auto veteran from General Motors said the predecessor’s car design was too good to be messed up with. He said that he had scouted for an ideal location together with the some Karma employees, and they had finally settled in California. He said they preferred California because of the weather and its cultural amenities regardless of the fact other states offered up incentives for tax and cash.
Taylor said he had a good feeling about the new venture because the incoming owner of Karma, Lu Guanqui, worth over $6.5 billion and the 18th richest person in China had good long-term targets. Taylor said the owner was eyeing this as a project for his kids and their kids.
