Doing the Board-Walk

The 13th seems to have been unlucky for these two chaps.

The first is Charles Morgan of the Morgan Car Company. The second is Henrik Fisker, late of the Fisker Car Company. Not to be confused with Fusker:

James May's late cat.

Both these men have stood down as boss of the company that bears their name. Morgan's story is in Autocar here while Fisker's is in Autoguide here.

Both stories cite differences between the boss and the Board but while Fisker is leaving altogether, Morgan will be staying on. Nick Baker, sales manager at the Morgan Motor Company, said, "Charles will remain the figurehead of Morgan. His role is now to focus on opening doors and creating the market." Market Creator sounds a better job title than Doorman and although he is described as "the figurehead of Morgan", Autocar have called him "The face of Morgan".

They seem to be implying he is cross-eyed:

(Which he isn't)

Silex is Golden

Welcome to the Silex Power Cheerios - sorry, Chreos.

This is a start-up based in Malta and the initial publicity and drawings remind me of the early releases from Eterniti with their Hemorrhoid, which eventually transmogrified into the re-jigged Porsche Cayenne that is the Artemis - so nothing like they were initially claiming - and with most of their setting up done by Porsche.

Another thing that makes me sceptical about the Chreos is that everything shown so far is computer-generated.

And some of their claims seem highly optimistic:

This is an electric car with a range of 1000km (620 miles in real money) and a full charge time of just 10 minutes.

It can also do 185mph and has a sub 3 second 0-60 time.


Fisker must be very worried.

If the claims are to be believed, then this will be an electric car that could be used in the real world in place of a petrol car.


GM, Ford, Toyota etc. must all also be worried.


Silex Power's Website has a promotional video that looks OK:
although the font they use is a bit tricky to read. The car looks like a Bugatti Galibier from the side and an Alfa-Romeo from the front but since it's all CGI that doen't really mean much yet.

They are being very cagey about their batteries but say it is just a development of existing technologies, They also say that the recharge uses something called Hypercharging - there is some information on their site about how this will work but it involves lots of numbers and talk of inverters and kilowatts and amps that went over my head.

They say that they will build their first full-size prototype in July and be selling the cars in 2015.


If they are right, then this is a very big deal. Fox News have picked up on the story but, apart from them, I'm not seeing a lot of coverage.

Is it too good to be true?

Ask a serial optimist...


...or a cereal optimist.

Geddit!?



Oh well, cheerio.

Scaremongering

No, not Fox News for once. Although they do cover this story, unusually for them they go with a headline that immediately reassures. Maybe they are still reeling from Obama's success so haven't got back to their vitriolic best yet.

The headline that grabbed my attention was in caradvice.com.au and reads "Toyota Prius joins Fisker Karma in Hurricane Sandy fire troubles"

Their story seems to add fuel to the fire (intentional pun usage) of the worries that electric cars can spontaneously combust.

Fisker have had a few issues with car-fires in the past which pleases the right-wing, Fox News watching, Oil-Industry tycoons but these have been identified and resolved.

Not sure if these non-electric ones have been yet although I have heard glue may be at fault.

Anyway, the caradvice site refers back to The New York Times home of this brilliant quote: “We can’t be certain exactly what happened at the port,” Russell Datz, a Fisker spokesman, said in a telephone interview. “But we think being submerged in 13 feet of saltwater had something to do with it.”

These latest fires do not seem to be connected to the fact that Fiskers and Prius's (what is the correct plural there?) are electric or hybrid so restraint is needed. Otherwise, this brilliantly eloquent man needs to get on the case:

I found him on the Car&Driver site when I read this excellent article which coincidentally mentions electric car fires and Toyota. I'm not sure why he has a European number plate in his picture but his rant is perfect - I could easily imagine Lewis Black coming up with it - and if you don't know who Lewis Black is, look him up on YouTube and prepare to hear some swearing.

So, in summary, don't park your electric car in the sea and, most of all, as the great Clive Dunn who passed away yesterday would say, "Don't Panic!! Don't Panic!!"

Bad Karma for Justin Bieber?

An embarassing story today from Caradvice.com.au
This is the latest in a series of problems that have hit Fisker over the last couple of months:
They are facing a fraud lawsuit over rights to stocks.
They've had a recall to prevent a potential battery-pack leak.
and the potential killer:
They've had to lay off staff to help sort out debt issues arising from a huge Government Department of the Environment loan.

Their problems were highlighted two weeks ago in this Autoguide article.

It would be a shame if time is, as a suspiciously un-named analyst suggests, running out for Fisker. The cars look good, and the idea of using a petrol (or diesel) engine to generate elctricity to power the car makes good environmental sense - the motor should never be over-revving or free-wheeling or doing anything too wasteful.

So why mention Justin Bieber?

Simply to get a few more hits to my Blog.

But he was given a Karma for his 18th birthday. Autoguide reported it thus. God that article made me want to throw up.

Particularly this line from his manager, Scooter (yes Scooter!) Brawn, "We wanted to make sure, since you love cars, that when you’re on the road you are always environmentally friendly,” said Braun, adding, “And we decided to get you a car that would make you stand out.”

Yuk! As if Bieber wasn't sickly enough as it is.

Fisker could end up with a reputation for making cars for children - their other famous owner is Leonardo DiCaprio who may be 73 years old but only looks about 12.

Let's just hope Fisker doesn't go down like The Titanic.