Chevy Volt capitalizes on Fisker Karma’s battery breakdown

Not more than a week ago, it felt as though Fisker had the car to compete with the likes of the Chevy Volt and Tesla Roadster. With sporty luxurious designs and high performance plug-in technology, Fisker Automotive's  electric cars promised to utilize Henrik Fisker's BMW background to engineer top tier electric and hybrid cars. That was, however, before Fisker lost the power behind its electric engine.

Fisker announced today that it would be moving away from its anticipated battery manufacturer, Ener1 (parent company of EnerDel), because it could not meet Fisker's production requirements. In other words, Fisker doesn't have the battery to meet the specs it promised.

All the anticipation of the Fisker Karma's 100 miles to the gallon and a fuel-less 50 miles may be dispelled without a lithium-ion electric battery to power the engine. This is news to customers, car insurance providers, salespeople and everybody involved in the industry. The world is becoming more concerned with using greener technology. Car companies the world over are racing to improve their green credentials. Can Fisker deliver?

Fisker believes they will have a battery manufacturer by week's end, but from the sounds of it this late in the game, Fisker may be no more than a gas engine. After all, it is the electric battery that makes the electric car go.

On the heels of the Fisker announcement, and perhaps perfectly timed, General Motors built its first lithium-ion battery for the Chevy Volt and announced its plans to open a US plant that will manufacture electric motors.

As GM vice chairman of global product operations Tom Stephens puts it, "After batteries, electric motors are 'the second leg of the stool.'"

GM believes it has the pieces internally to design and build the electric batteries and motors necessary to power an electric car and more specifically, the Chevy Volt. In fact, GM may even manufacture electronic systems, the third leg of the stool, so that it controls all three major components of the electric engine.

According to the GM report, Tom underscored "that a company needs such expertise to carefully shop for a supplier for those [the three major pieces of the electric engine] components."

It seems GM is all too subtly proclaiming that while Fisker is scrambling to find the most important leg to the stool (the electric battery) GM is not only using expertise to find a battery manufacturer, but to build a battery manufacturer.

Its hard to argue that the Fisker Karma has the upper hand in the electric car market. In fact, at this time, it is hard to argue that the Fisker Karma is even an electric car.