“We want reasons for customers to go for us, as we’re
a Chinese-owned newcomer with a [Fisker] track record
that was problematic in many cases. We have to offer
something really different,” Karma’s director of exterior
design, Andreas Thurner, said. “In the beginning, the
[previous] company [Fisker] had big, big goals. Some
things worked out better, and some things not so good, but
the goals are still very interesting, to have this combination
of something that has timeless proportions like a Greek
statue, that’s not aging, that’s always just perfect.”
So Karma isn’t merely the sum of its past lives—or at
least it’s working very hard not to be. To that end, the auto-
motive portion of the company is just that, a portion, and
it’s not even the primary money maker. “If you only rely on
building and selling cars, you cannot make this company
successful,” Zhou said. “We have a different profit center.
We are more agile. We provide more customization to gen-
erate the price increase, sales, and profit.”
That customization will happen at the Karma Innova-
tion and Customization Center (KICC), located in Moreno
Valley, California. It’s where Karma’s cars are built, and
it’s where Karma hopes to develop a robust business of
bespoke customization, both for its own cars and for those
of its ostensible competitors. “Our customization is not
only for our car,” Zhou said. “We can open it up to, for
example, Tesla to do custom design in our studio.”
Karma also has a software and intellectual property
division, which aims to develop and license both hardware
components and software controls for autonomous driv-
ing, hybrid drive systems, charging systems, and more.
Responding to Volkswagen’s recent announcement of
similar plans to launch a software business, Zhou smiled
and laughed before growing serious. “I am very upset with
Volkswagen, as we are also going to have a software divi-
sion,” he said. “I should have announced it sooner. But it
doesn’t matter. We can still win. We are more agile, small-
er. They can build a software company, but it will take 10
years. We will take three years.”
By the time those three years are up, Karma will have
already launched the heavily updated, re-engineered, and
redesigned Karma Revero GT (which goes on sale immedi-
ately after its unveiling at the 2019 Shanghai auto show in
mid-April, with deliveries beginning in the fourth quarter
of 2019), as well as a Revero GTS performance variant, due
in early 2020. Then there’s a new car, code-named “3.0,” due
to arrive in early 2021. That car is previewed by the Karma
Vision Concept, illustrated here in computer renderings; it
was in the final stages of construction ahead of its launch at
the Shanghai show alongside the Karma Revero GT when
this article went to print. The Karma Pininfarina GT, which
was designed by Pininfarina using the second-gen Karma
chassis, is also set to be revealed at Shanghai and is on the
docket for potential production depending on customer
feedback. It is likewise shown here in computer renderings,
as it too was still being completed at press time.
KARMA VISION CONCEPT