Fisker Flambe At New Jersey Port Damages 16 Karmas

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

16 Fisker Karmas waiting at a New Jersey port caught fire, with all 16 cars burning to the ground.

Photos of the aftermath were obtained by Jalopnik, which also obtained this statement from Fisker

“It was reported today that several Fisker Karmas were damaged by fire at the Port of Newark after being submerged in sea water during Superstorm Sandy. We can report that there were no injuries and none of the cars were being charged at the time.

We have confidence in the Fisker Karma and safety is our primary concern. While we intend to find the cause as quickly as possible, storm damage has restricted access to the port.

We will issue a further statement once the root cause has been determined.”

Anyone with a science background (or anyone that got better than a C in Chemistry…): how do the vehicles go up in flames after being submerged in sea water. Anyone? Buller?

Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

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  • Michal Michal on Oct 31, 2012

    The important take away message from the burning vehicles is not to park them in large pools of salty water. I'll keep that in mind and avoid doing so in the future. Before today I had no clue it could be a bad idea.

  • Joe McKinney Joe McKinney on Nov 01, 2012

    It's a good thing these cars were burned. Now they cannot be cleaned up and sold to unsuspecting buyers like many of the flood cars from Hurricane Katrina.

  • JohnTheDriver JohnTheDriver on Nov 01, 2012

    The more TTAC hates 'em ... the more I like 'em. Given the build numbers these things will become collectibles in no time. I think after reading this "article" I'm going to officially put the Karma on my "keeping an eye on used prices" list.

    • Fincar1 Fincar1 on Nov 01, 2012

      You'll probably have to sell your Bricklin and your DeLorean to afford one....

  • Kyree Kyree on Nov 07, 2012

    Honestly, this looks like something I'd have drawn in my maths notebook in primary school before I knew better, before I knew about production costs and coefficients of drag and curb weights, before I knew why every shmuck with an idea in his head and the desire to have his name spelled out across someone's grille didn't just go ahead and release "the best car in the world." This car looks practical at a first glance, but it is doomed to be a fashion statement and nothing more. Not that there's anything wrong with fashion statement vehicles; I think they're great. But when you have taxpayers breathing down your throat and you're trying to prove electric technology, perhaps it would be a prudent idea to build something that delivers on at least one of its promises. Tesla did much the same thing with the Roadster, but it was blatantly a niche car, rather than something that peddled itself off as a sedan fit for ordinary use, and it had performance specs that made its electric-drivetrain an asset. The Roadster said to the world, "We're just getting started." The Karma says, "This is honestly the best we can do." Perhaps, then, this catastrophe was nature's way of eradicating a pointless car. All of that svelte bodywork and sophisticated trimming--wasted, because Fisker put an underwhelming, uneconomical, fire-prone drivetrain beneath it. On the plus side, the cars that haven't burned themselves to the ground will become retirement plans once they skyrocket in value on the grounds of rarity.

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