Irvine’s Fisker Automotive Inc. is backed by a top-notch designer from BMW AG and Aston Martin and has a buzz surrounding its sexy, environmentally friendly luxury cars.
But the upstart automaker’s greatest asset just might be Victor Doolan’s Rolodex.
“I know most of the retailers in America from my experience with other car companies,” said Doolan, who held senior posts with Ford Motor Corp.’s Premier Automotive Group in Irvine and was president of BMW’s North American unit.
Doolan retired as North American head of Ford’s Volvo in 2005. Two years later, he came out of semiretirement to join four-year-old Fisker, where he’s director of retail development and a board member.
Fisker is developing an upscale sedan, the Karma, and a sports car, the Sunset, which run off a combination electric and rechargeable battery engine developed with Irvine-based Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc.
The cars are due out next year and are set to sell for $87,500 to $120,000.
A call from Henrik Fisker, Fisker’s founder, chief executive and one of the lead designers on the BMW Z8, brought Doolan out of retirement.
“Henrik phoned me up and asked if I wanted to see what he was up too,” Doolan said.
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Fisker sports car: set to sell for about $120,000 |
Fisker and Bernhard Koehler left the security of design jobs at Ford to start the company in 2005.
Doolan knew Fisker from Premier Automotive Group, where Fisker designed for Aston Martin when it was part of Ford.
Recruiter
Doolan’s challenge: recruiting dealers.
The automaker is looking to set up a global network of 40 dealers to sell its cars.
Doolan hopes to have them in place by March. Fisker has about 30 dealers signed up so far.
Because of Doolan’s contacts, he said he doesn’t have to do a lot of traveling.
“I’m able to pick up the phone or send an e-mail to retailers and invite them out to Irvine and show them what we’re doing,” he said. “I don’t have to go out to them because I already know them, their facilities and their people.”
Getting dealers on board is another matter. Fisker is trying to recruit dealers during the worst downturn in auto sales in recent memory, including for luxury vehicles.
“The obvious concerns are when and how,” Doolan said. “The retailers we’re dealing with have weathered through other downturns before. Most tell me (the industry) will have turned around by the end of the next year.”
The automaker is pitching its cars as a relatively low-risk proposition for dealers. It’s looking for existing dealers to carve out a small amount of space,about 800 to 1,000 square feet,to sell the cars.
The plan is similar to what Doolan did with BMW dealers when they added Mini divisions.
“I could see us as a separate sales area but with a shared service facility,” he said.
Doolan estimates the cost to become a Fisker dealer at $350,000 to just under $1 million. That includes two demonstrator cars, parts, signs, training and a small showroom.
The cars themselves would be made to order and delivered in about three months.
“We’re not going to hold inventory at the dealerships, because we feel that is destructive to the value of the car and very expensive for the retailers,” Doolan said.
Fisker has enlisted Finnish custom automaker Valmet Automotive OY to produce the cars. Valmet also does Porsche AG’s Boxster and Cayman models.
A 34,000-square-foot facility in Pontiac, Mich., is set to customize the cars.
Fisker is looking at established luxury dealerships.
“We’re trying to leverage what is in place by selecting retailers that have proven track records, are in the right locations and preferably have premium experience,” he said.
On Board
One enlisted dealer is Ron Tonkin Automotive Group in Portland, Ore. Tonkin owns some 15 dealerships.
“I’ve known Ron for many years and as an active retailer in Oregon, he’s always stayed on what’s the leading edge of what’s going to sell,” Doolan said. “He came down here and was convinced.”
Fisker is looking at major U.S. markets, including Southern California, Chicago and New York. Doolan wouldn’t say if the company has lined up an Orange County dealer.
Luxury automakers BMW, Mercedes-Benz, part of Daimler AG, and Lexus, part of Toyota Motor Corp., have hybrid or alternative fuel models that stand to compete with Fisker.
A closer competitor is San Carlos-based Tesla Motors Inc., which early on planned to work with Fisker but has spent the past few years trading lawsuits with the company.
In December, a retired judge ruled in favor of Fisker in an arbitration hearing.
Doolan said he sees comparisons between Fisker and the early days of BMW.
“The former president at BMW once said to me, ‘It’s not the big that beat the small, but the fast that beat the slow,'” he said.
