The Chinese owner of Southern California’s lone automaker is growing the Revero line with as new model that will formally debut in about a week. Executives also hinted at new vehicle types, including an SUV, in the years ahead.
Fans of Irvine-based Karma’s sleek, high-end electric-powered Revero got their first look at the next-generation model when a limited-edition 2019 car was unveiled to a crowd of community leaders and employees at the Southern California facility that produced it.The Revero on display Tuesday was a pre-sold, one-off model. Three models, its 2020 model and two “concept vehicles” will be unveiled later this month at Auto Shanghai, one of the world’s largest car shows. Karma has dubbed its Shanghai showcase its “New Dawn.”
Since the company was formed in 2014, Karma has built a global enterprise with about 1,000 employees. Its vehicles are priced at as much as $135,000. Karma also has its Detroit Technical Center in Troy, Mich., and a design and engineering campus in Hangzhou, China, where the parent company is based.
The automaker partners with dealerships at 19 retail locations in the U.S., Canada and Chile, which includes a company-operated store in Newport Beach. The company hopes to expand to Europe.
Lance Zhou, who took over as CEO of Karma in December 2017, said it is unusual for a company to start making cars in California.
“And this is the toughest market for luxury cars anywhere,” Zhou, a 25-year veteran of the industry who holds a doctorate in engineering, told the crowd. “But if we can succeed, we will ring every bell all over the world.”
Take a peek inside
The assembly floor in Moreno Valley includes the fabrication of pure aluminum into doors, frames, hoods and other body parts. Welders are at work at numerous stations. The Revero bodies are painted in a large, sealed-off room. Parts move from station to station, transported by robotic arms dangling from the ceiling.The assembly lines run for about 100 yards. Then, they bend around second and third corridors, moving the parts like a giant letter “s.”
What is absent from the factory floor is much of the noise that used to be a signature of automotive assembly plants. Mechanics no longer use loud air-powered drills and similar tools. The result is a sort of quiet efficiency.
“We build the most beautiful car in the world under this roof,” said Dennis Dougherty, Karma’s president and chief operating officer. “This facility in Moreno Valley is the result of a $100 million investment. That investment shows we intend to keep great ideas and great craftsmanship right here in Moreno Valley.”
About 200 people work in the factory. When it opened, the Riverside County Workforce Development Board and a sister agency, the Moreno Valley Employee Resource Center, used a federal grant to help recruit, screen and train job applicants.
“These people are making good money and have a good future there,” said Jamil Dada, chairman of the Riverside board. Karma has indicated that they may double the workforce in Moreno Valley in the future. Tuesday the factory was renamed Karma Innovation and Customization Center.
While Karma was able to secure a workforce of people with good tooling skills, one Karma associate said much of the intricacies of assembling an electric car are learned on the job.
Karma once was known as Fisker Automotive, the company that created the Fisker Karma, a luxury plug-in vehicle. Today’s Revero looks much like the very first Karma. Fisker filed for bankruptcy, and Karma was started after Wanxiang Group, a Chinese auto parts conglomerate, purchased some of their assets.
The factory makes about 500 cars a year, said Dave Barthmuss, Karma’s public relations manager. “Our goal is to work at a deliberate pace, make carefully hand-built cars,” Barthmuss said. “That’s why they cost what they do.”
As the company progresses over the next two years, Zhou said that new lines could be released, which could include an SUV and vehicles produced at a faster pace that target more of a mass market audience.
Zhou added, in a discussion with a group of visitors, that this might take partnering with other companies. But he added that Moreno Valley has the capacity to keep up with demand.
“We make our luxury cars here,” Zhou said. “All will be exported from here.”
