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Fisker is back with a potential Tesla Model S rival

Fisker appears to be having another go at the eco car market with the EMotion, the Karma’s spiritual successor, only now it has Tesla to deal with.

Fisker founder Henrik Fisker will no doubt be hoping the EMotion performs better than the Karma, a luxury hybrid saloon that attracted celebrity customers such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Justin Bieber, but caught fire too often and was plagued by quality issues.

As such, it died a death and Fisker went quietly into bankruptcy. Then Chinese company Wanxiang brought it, revamped the Karma and now it appears we will soon have a potential Tesla Model S rival on our hands.

It is currently unclear what will power the Fisker EMotion, but the name suggests an electric motor, meaning no combustion engine to back it up unlike the Karma.

We do know, however, that it will have a top speed of 161mph and a range of 400 miles (again suggesting it will be electric).

400 miles would make it outlast the Tesla Model S, the most capable electric car on the market in this department, but it is unclear how Fisker arrived at that number. Even the overly generous NEDC rating is sub-400 for the 100kWh Model S.

The use of a new type of graphene battery could be the reason and even if not it should (in theory) charge faster than a lithium-ion alternative.

Other highlights of the Fisker EMotion include autonomous driving tech (the provider of which is unknown at this stage), adaptive LED headlights, a carbon fibre body to keep it lightweight and serious time spent honing the aerodynamics.

Not only that, the Fisker EMotion features dihedral butterfly doors (as seen on the McLaren P1) at the front and back. A Tesla Model X only has falcon wing doors at the rear.

Whether that type of door will be useful remains to be seen, but they certainly grab attention and at this stage Fisker needs to put itself back on the map. Which would be a good thing because a touch competition could speed up the innovation of electric cars.

The Fisker is reportedly going to be built at an existing facility and will be unveiled in 2017. Stay tuned for more as we get it.

Fisker EMotion pictures

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