Official: Fisker: cooling fan responsible for Karma fire; voluntary recall has started

Filed under: Hybrid, Sedan, Recalls, Fisker, Electric, Luxury

After two short "we're looking into it" official statements (1, 2), Fisker Automotive has announced that it has completed a "detailed investigation" into the strange, spontaneous combustion of a Karma plug-in hybrid that happened in Woodside, CA last weekend. The result? A voluntary recall to fix the low-temperature cooling fan located in the left front of the Karma, in front of the wheel, that apparently has "an internal fault that caused it to fail, overheat and start a slow burning fire."

Fisker says the supplier is responsible and will work together with the unnamed company to fix the problem. Retailers will contact customers and "this recall campaign is not expected to have a material financial impact on Fisker." The fix entails a new cooling fan "that meets the required specifications" and a new, extra fuse "for added protection." Around 2,400 Karmas are affected by this recall.

As the latest statement makes clear, and as we expected, the parking-lot fire was not caused by the lithium-ion battery. Company co-founder Henrik Fisker said, "This incident resulted from a single, faulty component, not our unique EVer powertrain or the engineering of the Karma. As this situation demonstrates, Fisker Automotive is dedicated to doing whatever is necessary to address safety and quality concerns." You can read the entire statement below.

Fisker is also saying that there is no discernible connection between the Woodside fire and another fire involving a Karma that happened in Texas in May. Fisker spokesman Roger Ormisher told Bloomberg that, "The report for the Texas fire is not in the public domain and we do not have access to it. ... the real root cause [of the Texas fire] is unlikely to be determined."

The Karma has been recalled before, at the tail end of 2011, for problems with the battery pack, specifically the battery hose clamp. Some Karma battery packs also had some defective prismatic cells replaced by battery-maker A123 Systems.

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Fisker: cooling fan responsible for Karma fire; voluntary recall has started originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 19 Aug 2012 14:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2012/08/19/fisker-karma-cooling-fan-fire-voluntary-recall/

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