Karma Automotive, the automaker previously known as Fisker Automotive, is working on an electric pickup truck and SUV, Bloomberg reports. The company plans to show off a concept version of the pickup before the end of the year, and eventually sell it with a starting price that’s less than its $135,000 Karma Revero. Both vehicles will be based around a new all-wheel-drive platform which will be built at the automaker’s factory in Southern California.
In order for the vehicles to be a success, Karma Automotive will have to prove that it’s moved on from the failed Fisker Automotive brand, which was purchased and rebranded by China’s Wanxiang Group in 2014. Wanxiang changed the company’s name to Karma, and rebranded its hybrid sports car, the Karma, as the Revero.
The company’s attempts to move on from the Fisker name will be complicated by the fact that it’s still in use by Fisker Automotive’s original co-founder, Henrik Fisker, who started a new company called Fisker Inc in 2016. Fisker Inc announced its first mass-market EV, the Fisker Ocean SUV, earlier this month. The company plans to sell the car starting at $37,500, and says it will be capable of between 250 and 300 miles of range per charge. It also features a solar roof, which may offer a marginal increase.
Both Karma’s electric pickup truck and SUV are set to enter increasingly crowded markets. In the past 18 months alone we’ve seen electric pickup truck announcements from the likes of Ford, Rivian, GM, and — of course — Tesla. Meanwhile, Jaguar, Audi, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Tesla, and many more, all have electric SUVs either announced or on the market.