Remember the Karma Revero? It was the rebadged version of the Fisker Karma, a hybrid sport-luxury car with striking exterior proportions and styling and a shockingly small interior. The old Fisker company was bought out by Chinese company Wanxiang around 2014 (though they moved the factory to California), and the Revero was updated quite a bit, perhaps most significantly in 2020 when the 2-liter GM Ecotec was replaced by the 1.5-liter BMW TwinPower I3 Turbo inline three-cylinder, the same engine used as a range extender in the BMW i8.
(Author’s note: Holy crap, this post was an unexpected pain. I blame David. Well, maybe Matt too. See, this all started at the event where Karma was showing off their new supercar or whatever, and there was a Revero, and I went in to rummage around in it and managed to find the emergency door openers. I came back to Matt and David and mentioned this and how they seemed to be better than the Tesla emergency door openers, and I swear They both thought it should be a post. They sent me back to take some pictures and everything.
When I asked David about this on Slack, he denied that he ever suggested this should be a post:
I mention this because David has been constantly bugging me about this stupid post and it’s become such a thing that I’ve decided the only way to get anything done with it is through painful, total transparency. So in this post I’m going to address the chaos behind the scenes. -JT)
Despite all these changes, the Revero is still expensive (the cheapest versions are around $80,000, $130,000 or so is normal), it still has terrible interior space and packaging, it’s not really efficient and I have no idea who they sell it to. I haven’t seen one on the road in ages. But I did see one at Karma’s event where they unveiled their Karma Kaveya electric hypercar, and there I was able to sniff around in it and see that it at least has an advantage over, say, a Tesla Model Y.
Here is the advantage:
Yes, I’m talking about the emergency door release! Here it is without the cover:
Let me be very clear here: I think any car that requires a second, emergency way to open the door is a design flaw, because electrically operated door locks are, to put it charitably, stupid. Car door locks are a largely solved problem. Adding motors and electricity and redundant emergency methods to open the damn door is just unnecessary complication for extremely little benefit.
Nevertheless, I think Karma’s approach to emergency door opening is superior to Tesla’s for two reasons: First, all the doors have an emergency release; some Tesla Model 3 and Y do not have an emergency rear door release, and those that do have one are not the easiest to access. Here’s what the Tesla Model Y owner’s manual says:
The emergency release of the Karma’s doors is somewhat hidden on the underside of the armrest, but at least it is fairly easy and quick to access:
(Author’s note: OK, this is where things start to get complicated. I thought this post was going to be a pretty silly thing where I would find a largely irrelevant metric that the Revero – a car that has been so thoroughly and thoroughly beaten by Teslas that it’s not even funny – can come out on top. This little bone we’re throwing to the lowest of underdogs probably won’t even make a person choose a Karma over a Tesla, but it seemed to me like it would make for a fun and somewhat informative post.
At first, David seemed to agree:
There is actually a reason why the easier to find location of the Tesla front unlock not a good thing, so much so that there are even stickers to ensure that passengers don’t use them accidentally. And that’s because using the emergency release on the front doors of some Teslas can, and in at least some cases has, resulted in broken windows. I’ve experienced this myself, as I tell here:)
The other reason I find the Karma’s emergency door release superior to Tesla’s is that, unlike Tesla’s, the Karma’s system allows doors to be opened without breaking the windows, as is the case with Tesla’s emergency door release:
I experienced this first hand in June with my neighbor’s Tesla Model Y. It’s really a terrible design decision because if you open a non-powered door on a Tesla Model Y (and I believe the Model 3 as well), the window bends and cracks. That’s just the price you have to pay for getting out of a non-powered Tesla.
Despite all its shortcomings, the Revero does not have this problem.
Why can’t we compare them? I’ve used the emergency release on a stock Revero and no windows were broken. And I’ve seen the emergency release used on a stock Tesla Model Y and some were broken. Now that’s something!
Man, I just wanted to post something quick. Is he saying that the fact that I saw the Tesla’s emergency release breaking windows in real time and first hand is as meaningless as some anecdotal evidence? Okay, sure, maybe the Tesla’s emergency release doesn’t break windows. everyone Time, but we know that sometimes it breaks it, and that sucks enough, right?
There is no evidence that this happens with a Karma and its also frameless windows, but that doesn’t seem to satisfy David, and I guess testing every Karma ever built is enough. Well, he is definitely right when he notes that the Karma I tested had power and the Tesla problem occurs when the door is not powered:
How the hell am I supposed to prove this is the case for all Reveros? I mean, I think I can make some pretty good extrapolations, since all cars are built identically and we’re generally OK with that in this business – when we do tests, we don’t constantly make it clear that these driving impressions are only for a specific VIN – plus there are plenty of cars with frameless windows, like many Subarus or Mustangs, that have never had their windows shatter when their doors open with a dead battery.
I understand on a basic level what David is trying to do, and it is noble. He wants us to be able to defend what we say, and he especially doesn’t want us to fall into the trap of being too quick to criticize Tesla. I understand that and respect it.
But for a post like this? And it just kept going. David sent me a video of someone using the shutter in a Tesla without breaking the window, which resulted in this:
BWhy are we like this? I know he’s right on at least some levels, but all this makes me want to whip up a meatloaf over and over again. Why can’t it be simple? Why can’t I just write a silly little post comparing a car nobody cares about to one all sorts of people care about and then put it online and forget about it? Ugggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh. – JT)
(Editor’s note: I love Jason, I just want us to be cautious about claiming one design is better than the other based on extremely limited data (there aren’t many Revero owners, so you’d expect there to be few cases of broken windows). Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if Jason was right. -DT).
I guess I wrote this out of perverse, misguided pity for the Revero; I don’t think it’s a particularly Good Car – it’s better than the original Fisker Karma, which I once moaned about for a minute and a half:
Karma has improved the car, but its sales numbers still have a tiny rounding error compared to Tesla sales, so I just wanted to point out that the Karma is clearly and measurably superior to the Tesla in at least one ridiculous metric that I think would never exist.
You’re welcome, karma.
My neighbor’s Tesla Model Y window shattered due to a stunningly bad design
The Karma Kaveya is an EV supercar with trillionaire doors and working eyelids
Karma Automotive sues the New DeLorean Company and its executives for alleged violation of trade secrets
