Henrik Fisker
Henrik Fisker
Henrik Fiskeris a Danish-born automotive designer and entrepreneur residing in Los Angeles, California. He is best known for designing iconic luxury cars including the BMW Z8, Aston Martin DB9, Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Fisker Karma, Galpin-Fisker Mustang Rocket, VLF Force 1 V10 and the VLF Destino V8. He also designed the Viking motorcycle and Benetti Fisker 50 superyacht. He is the founder of HF Design & Technology, co-founder of VLF Automotive, founder and former CEO of Fisker Coachbuild, and founder...
NationalityDanish
ProfessionDesigner
Date of Birth10 August 1963
CountryDenmark
Most automakers develop multiple options for a single project. Then they present those options to a committee of executives who decide which one to go with. That takes a lot of time.
I believe there's still room for the dream a lot of people in the industry have - to design and build your own cars.
One of the big failures for the big auto companies is that even the CEO and the top management often don't understand design and manufacturing. As a CEO, you have to make decisions; you need to have knowledge.
The biggest challenge is to build the team and start the company, while hiring people, raising money, building a brand which has no history, all at the same time. You're doing a lot of things that in an established company are already done.
We believe that there are many buyers who want a stylish, sporty car that sends a positive message about their concern for the environment as they drive it down the street.
I used to have to pick up the phone and talk to people who placed orders for the car. When you reach a certain size, you need to have processes in place.
I remember, as a kid, riding in the back of my dad's old Saab 95 in Denmark. We were on the highway, and suddenly this silver Maserati Bora came upon us, then passed. At the time, to me, this car looked like a spaceship.
Design - pure beauty - will be number one at Fisker Coachbuild. We want to bring beautiful, desirable cars to the market, limit the production of each model, and do so with the highest quality.
At a European auto show, I had someone from a German car company come up to me and say the Karma should cost $125,000, not $87,900, but our development process lets us lower the costs. I guarantee it's profitable.
As a car lover, I ask myself, 'What am I going to be buying in the future? Will it be a boring, underpowered, dorky car because the government tells me I shouldn't pollute? Or do I come up with a cool-looking, sexy dream car that is also part of the future?'
Any car designer always dreams about designing their own car - if they say they don't, they're lying... For me, it was never about starting my own company just to make another car.
You know what? Starting a car company is risky.
When we first showed the Karma in January 2008, we had barely started the company.
When I was at BMW and Aston Martin, I realized how difficult and how many resources it takes to create a car - let alone a car company.