Karma, the company, is starting its effort in earnest to revive sales of its Revero—the car that started life as the ill-fated Fisker Karma.
According to the federal government, Karma sold 231 of the cars in 2018, well down from the 2,667 that Fisker sold in the car's first year on the market.
That's partly the result of a paucity of dealers. The company says it has 18 stores—in addition to its new Moreno Valley, California, design center—worldwide selling the cars. Those dealerships are in the U.S., Canada, and Chile.
Now as the company gets ready to sell the updated 2020 Revero GT, with a longer 65-mile electric range and a new, more powerful gas engine from BMW, Karma announced that it will open new luxury dealerships in 13 U.S. cities and 19 new countries.
Last month the company unveiled its new retail environment with the new design center at its Moreno Valley, California headquarters. There, it says, customers will be treated to a new “VVIP treatment” where they can tour the factory, customize the features they want on their cars, and meet the workers who hand-built them.
It's an effort to become something over a latter-day Rolls Royce (without the room), or a would-be cutting-edge Aston Martin, with Southern California style and craftsmanship, rather than that of the Old World.
Artist's impression of Karma Customer Experience Center
Among the new world markets, Karma says, will be Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and China. It did not specify the 13 new U.S. cities where it plans to operate.
At the same time, Karma gave a first look at the interior of its new all-electric Pininfarina-designed SC1 roadster, which was revealed at the Shanghai auto show in April, along with a video showing the designers' artistic inspiration and the process of building the prototype.
The SC1 is expected to give rise to Karma's first electric car, but no date has been set. Karma is also seeking production partners in China for more mass-market models. In between, the company also has plans to build a plug-in hybrid SUV based on the Revero.
