More Than A Dozen Fisker Karma Hybrids Caught Fire And Exploded In New Jersey Port After Sandy

Jalopnik ^ | Nov 01,2012 | Staff

[Red Badger]

Approximately 16 of the $100,000+ Fisker Karma extended-range luxury hybrids were parked in Port Newark, New Jersey last night when water from Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge apparently breached the port and submerged the vehicles. As Jalopnik has exclusively learned, the cars then caught fire and burned to the ground.

Our source tells us they were “first submerged in a storm surge and then caught fire, exploded.” This wouldn’t be the first time the vehicles, which use a small gasoline engine to charge batteries that provide energy to two electric motors, had an issue with sudden combustion.

The vehicle, despite only being in limited production, has already experienced numerous fires due to equipment failures and electrical shorts. How, exactly, they caught fire after being submerged in sea water is unclear. It’s possible the salt water caused a short that led to a fire.

Calls to Fisker and the Port Newark Container Terminal have not been returned as of publication time.

UPDATE: Fisker released the following statement:

“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.”

[Joe 6-pack]

Reminds me of a vending machine in my dorm hall in college. Somebody figured out that if you pumped a turkey baster full of salt water into the coin slot you could get a free soda.

As time passed, you'd see more and more people wandering down the hall to the vending machines with a turkey basted load with salt water every time they wanted a soda. Eventually, there was a thick crust of salt on the front of the vending machine under the coin slot, but for some reason, the vending company kept loading it up with sodas.

One night it burst into flames.

Go figure.

[Lx]

Wasn’t that Val Kilmer in Top Secret? Still funny 30 years later.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

Talk about bad Karma...

[DoughtyOne]

I take it back. Perhaps there is something to this karma thing. LOL

[ken in texas]

That can’t be true. Rosie O’Donnell said that steel doesn’t melt. /s

[TurboZamboni]

Complete List of President Obama’s Taxpayer-Backed Green Energy Failures (as of Thursday, October 18th, 2012)

Evergreen Solar ($24 million)*

SpectraWatt ($500,000)*

Solyndra ($535 million)*

Beacon Power ($69 million)*

AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy ($17.1 million)

Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)

SunPower ($1.5 billion)

First Solar ($1.46 billion)

Babcock and Brown ($178 million)

EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*

Amonix ($5.9 million)

National Renewable Energy Lab ($200 million)

Fisker Automotive ($528 million)

Abound Solar ($374 million)*

A123 Systems ($279 million)*

Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($6 million)

Johnson Controls ($299 million)

Schneider Electric ($86 million)

Brightsource ($1.6 billion)

ECOtality ($126.2 million)

Raser Technologies ($33 million)*

Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*

Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*

Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*

Range Fuels ($80 million)*

Thompson River Power ($6.4 million)*

Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*

LSP Energy ($2.1 billion)*

UniSolar ($100 million)*

Azure Dynamics ($120 million)*

GreenVolts ($500,000)

Vestas ($50 million)

LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($150 million)

Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*

Navistar ($10 million)

Satcon ($3 million)*

*Denotes companies that have filed for bankruptcy.

http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/141778/Complete-List-of-President-Obama’s-Taxpayer-Backed-Green-Energy-Failures.html

3 posted on Friday, October 19, 2012 10:58:40 AM by carriage_hill (The 0bummer Penguin: I played this country like a harp from hell.)

[Covenantor]

I know I posted this joke on the other thread but those crispified hulks in the middle of the non-electric cars just makes it more apropos.

--------------------------------

Guy with a deep tan is sitting at club house bar with a pale obvious new comer.

Tanned guy, "I came from NYC after my dress factory went up in flames one night. Darn good thing I had insurance, because I couldn't move those rags for love or money."

Pale guy, "Well, my sad tale is similar. The exclusive Fiskar Karma dealership I had was in deep trouble. Just no market for $100k plus electric cars. And then that storm Sandy flooded the 16 that just came in. Water flooded the batteries, they caught fire and blew up. Damned good thing I had insurance. So I took the $2 mil and came down here."

Tanned guy after a pause quietly asks, "How the heck do you start a hurricane?"

[radiohead]

Thanks. My little mind was having problems with the whole ‘submerged then caught on fire’ thing.

[PGR88]

[Eva]

I’ve been asking for a report on industrial damage from the storm. So far, all we have heard about are the private property owners. What about all those coal terminals and other bulk cargo terminals, what about refineries. The New Jersey coast is lined with industrial and commercial facilities, yet we hear nothing.

[GonzoGOP]

Old submariners will tell you that getting salt water in the batteries was usually a lethal combination. Not only do you get a short, but you also get hydrogen gas and molecular O2. If the gasses can pocket bad things happen.

[Lockbar]

AlGore face palm!!!

[angcat]

We have five very big customers in NJ and they are all closed until futher notice. We also received this notice from the Port.

Hurricane Sandy and Vessel Schedule – Update 9 - Revised
Dear Valued Customer:

As a direct result of the effects of Hurricane Sandy, the ship channel to
Elizabeth, NJ remains closed by the US Coast Guard.

Similarly, APM Terminals in Elizabeth lacks electricity and the terminal
will remain closed tomorrow, Thursday, November 1st while debris is cleared
and terminal damage assessments are conducted.

Horizon Lines will be cancelling this Friday’s scheduled departure of
Horizon Producer voyage PD722S from Elizabeth. The Producer will instead
depart Elizabeth on voyage PD723S Friday, November 9th. This will give our
customer base time to recover their operations from the storm and execute
the normal cycle of drawing empties and returning loaded containers to our
Elizabeth terminal. Bookings will be updated automatically to reflect the
updated voyage numbers and new booking confirmations will be sent to our
customer base.

Additionally, Horizon Lines will be cancelling the Northbound departure
from San Juan to Elizabeth normally scheduled for Monday, October 5th. The
next northbound voyage to Elizabeth will be Horizon Trader TO489N departing
San Juan Monday, November 12th.

[Cvengr]

My Cars!.... My Cars!

[Cvengr]

Were they being shipped in or out by ship?

I wonder how the insurance carrier for the freighter will respond. Imagine if this had happened in transit at sea.

[lurk]

el carro es mui caliente.

[dangerdoc]

Note to self:

Avoid low water bridges and standing water. In the past I only had to worry about drowning. Yikes!

[ThirdMate]

Were you in culinary school? How many students kept a turkey baster in their dorm?

[Eva]

Thanks, I knew it had to be bad. My husband was wondering how the Coast Guard Stations fared? He was stationed at several stations from Shinnecock to Cape May.

[dfwgator]