Model S

Make
Tesla
Segment
Sedan

The car formerly known as the Fisker Karma, now called the Karma Revero, does not exactly have the best track record, reliability wise. In hindsight, would it have been better for the Fisker Karma to die out when the company went under? Perhaps. As first reported by Jalopnik, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued another recall for the Revero, the second time it's done so in two months. The first time was because the rollover sensors were never enabled. Yes, really.

This time, the issue is possibly even more potentially serious because it involves the side impact protection. The NHTSA states "that the upper intrusion bracket (bar) in the front left door of certain 2018 Karma Revero vehicles contained a segment of split metal at or near the B pillar section of the inner door." This was actually discovered "during a routine inspection at the assembly plant." Fantastic.

The good news is even though all front and rear doors of the vehicles were inspected at the factory, only the front left door of certain vehicles was found to be problematic. In short, the defect means these vehicles may not meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard impact protection requirements. As such, the Karma Revero now has a stop-sale order. A total of 295 vehicles could be defective, all of which were built between May 2017 and December 2018. The good news is that there haven't been any reports of injuries or fatalities. Nor has there been any warranty claims.

Nevertheless, Karma will begin notifying affected owners starting July 12 until July 31. Dealers were notified of the problem on May 31 and have already begun making the necessary preparations to fix the problem. But let's be honest here. It's not like the Karma Revero is a completely terrible car. It's not.

Karma is trying its best and it's not like it has any desire to violate federally mandated vehicle safety laws. Still though, the Revero is not cheap (base price: around $140,000) and there will soon be plenty of alternatives for eco-friendly large luxury sedans. The Porsche Taycan and Audi e-tron GT are just two, and both are full-on EVs. In short, Karma needs to do better if it wants to survive.