Living in Northern Illinois, an in-development prototype vehicle is not something I’d ever expect to come across in the wild. In fact, I’d only previously seen “spy pics” of black-and-white-wrapped development rides through enthusiast sites that spotted them in far more exotic locales. Last Thursday, however, I was in Southern California working on a special project for Life of Dad and Kelley Blue Book (stay tuned!) when I came across my first – the Karma Revero.
Rolling into the parking lot of a biker bar somewhere outside of Irvine, I was with Nick Dawson of Dadlabs as we rounded the corner in a 2016 Toyota Sienna and spotted the zebra-striped luxury sports car, honestly having no clue what we were looking at. It was Mark Schirmer of KBB that called it – “That’s a Fisker!”
I recalled the short history of the Fisker Karma from some years back – a hybrid that made some waves but never caught on the way that Tesla did. The company eventually went bankrupt, and various bits and pieces have since been absorbed by several different businesses over the past couple of years.
After swinging back around the mysterious ride, we noticed that it was parked alongside of one of the original Fisker Karmas, from which I caught the badge and mistakenly thought it might’ve been an Alfa Romeo. With a few different outfits currently developing vehicles that have some of the Fisker DNA, it took a little digging after the fact to find out exactly what we’d spotted.
The Revero is the first new vehicle being produced by Karma Automotive (formerly Fisker Automotive), keeping a name that bridges the old and the new as they hire engineers in Detroit and build cars in California . While there isn’t a ton of information out there just yet, indeed it’s being road-tested, so be on the lookout – you just might see one.
