Mid East purchasers of Fisker Karma electric hybrids should be aware of the car’s potential fire risks
Wealthy residents of opulent Mid East countries such as Abu Dhabi have been well known for owning various types of luxury vehicles, ranging from solid gold Mercedes sport cars that run on biofuel to ungreen armored gold trimmed Rolls Royce EWB Phantom limousines. A new type of luxury sports car, the US-made Fisker Karma electric hybrid sports car, is now being imported into the UAE and other Middle East countries by Dubai based Al-Futtaim Trading Enterprises, as reported in a recent Green Prophet article, but potential buyers should be warned that the car has been riddled with problems.
A Fisker Karma hybrid
Some Middle East buyers may have to wait awhile for their new Fisker, however, as it was reported that 16 of these super fast electric hybrids burned and exploded at a storage lot in the Port of New Jersey where they had been parked prior to being exported abroad. The cars were flooded by seawater during the recent hurricane Sandy super storm and investigators are trying to determine what caused the car’s batteries to catch fire and then literally explode.
Although it is still too early to determine exactly what caused this to happen, theories seem to point to the possibility of an electrical short circuit caused by the cars being submerged in seawater. This isn’t the first time that these cars have caught fire, however. There have been other incidents, including one in the US state of Texas when a Fisker Karma caught fire when its owner stopped at a supermarket to buy groceries. This incident occurred about two months after the company recalled 600 cars due to a possible battery defect.
Another US manufactured hybrid car, GM’s Chevrolet Volt also has had problems with car batteries catching on fire during side impact crash tests.
Importing these $140,000 cars into the Middle East, especially Arabian Gulf countries like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait could cause more problems for these cars due to the extremely high summer temperatures of as much as 45 degrees Celsius as well as the possibility of the danger of tidal surges caused by cyclones and similar storms.
It’s still too early to tell whether these cars, which incorporate a small auxiliary gasoline engine to recharge the car’s battery pack to extend their driving distance, will have similar problems in the Middle East. But we do advise buyers to proceed with caution.
More articles on electric, luxury and hybrid cars and issues surrounding them:
Luxury Fisker Karma Electric Vehicle Hits the Middle East
The Best Electric Cars of 2012 According to the American Buzz
Volt Battery Catches Fire in Crash Tests But Beats the Renault Fluence EV
Abu Dhabi’s Solid Gold Bio Fuel Mercedes Another Dubious “Green” Development
Author: Maurice Picow
Maurice Picow grew up in Oklahoma City, U.S.A., where he received a B.S. Degree in Business Administration. Following graduation, Maurice embarked on a career as a real estate broker before making the decision to move to Israel. After arriving in Israel, he came involved in the insurance agency business and later in the moving and international relocation fields. Maurice became interested in writing news and commentary articles in the late 1990’s, and now writes feature articles for the The Jerusalem Post as well as being a regular contributor to Green Prophet. He has also written a non-fiction study on Islam, a two volume adventure novel, and is completing a romance novel about a forbidden love affair. Writing topics of particular interest for Green Prophet are those dealing with global warming and climate change, as well as clean technology - particularly electric cars.
It’s absolutely pathetic that this speculative smear of a story be published AFTER Fisker and NHTSA already released the results of their investigation. One out of 330 swamped Fisker’s, one caught fire due to saltwater in a low voltage (12V) control unit (a component common to many other car brands), and the fire spread to 16 other Fiskers. Several non-Fisker cars on the same pier including three Toyota Prius also caught fire!
NO FISKERS EXPLODED THAT WAS AN INACCURATE EXAGGERATION BY JALOPNIK!
How about getting your stories from some primary research instead of copying other crappy automotive blogs? And take down this stupid post-facto smear story.