We had just finished our round of golf and were in the parking lot, loading our clubs into the trunk. The group that had been ahead of us were loading up their clubs too. Boy did they play slow! They were not very good golfers. But…the one guy’s car caught my eye. Frankly, I had never seen anything like it, so I decided to do a slow cruise by to see what it was. It was a Fisker Karma. What the heck was that? It looked really sporty, and expensive. I was not familiar with Fisker…but I am now.
Fisker Automotive was a car company founded in 2007 that offered high-end hybrid-gas-electric vehicles. It went bankrupt in 2013 for a variety of reasons, but founder Henrik Fisker bounced back with Fisker Inc. in 2016. Interestingly, he has changed his focus from creating “objects of desire” to cars that offer connectivity and flexibility. That’s radical.
In an article I read in Business Insider, it said “younger people are not interested in horsepower or stick-shifts.” They have a “different view of mobility,” which has Fisker rethinking the car as an interface, not a lifelong commitment.
Fisker has gotten a lot of attention, and funding, for his new company to build and deliver its Ocean SUV by 2021. According to the article in Business Insider, Wall Street believes there is room in the market for one or two electric vehicle makers besides Tesla.
What does this mean for you? More electric vehicles in the market, of course, and more potential that they’ll be coming into your shop. In my last column, I wrote about the Hummer EV. Here, we are talking electric again. When was the last time you took training on HEVs and EVs? Have you ever taken this type of training? It’s time to train up.
