Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Fisker Recalls, Fixes Karmas

Irvine-based Fisker Automotive, the electric vehicle manufacturer in the midst of rolling out its first vehicle, the Fisker Karma, recalled, but has mostly fixed, an issue with its battery systems. According to a document from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, released late last month, Fisker recalled 239 cars, of which, only 40 had been delivered to customers. The issue was related to improper positioning of hose clamps in the Karma, which could cause coolant leakage into the car's battery. In a statement issued Monday, Fisker Automotive said that a majority of all customer cars and dealer-held vehicles by the recall of the A123 battery packs already had new battery packs fitted, only two weeks after the firm was made aware of the issue, and well ahead of the official NHTSA notice. Henrik Fisker, CEO of the company, said in a statement that "“We identified the appropriate fix, made our retailers aware of the situation and began contacting all our customers within 48 hours" of identifying the issue.

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