Owners have filed 5 complaints on the Fisker Karma, covering 2012–2012. The system named most often is Power Train (2 reports). Worst years by volume: 2012; cleanest: 2012. On average the car was 5.0 years old when the problem happened.
What breaks on Fisker Karma
Grouped by the system owners named — percentages are shares of all 5 Karma complaints. Open any row for the full reports in owners' own words.
Power Train 2 Read
Car was delivered march 19th, 2012 with engine warning lights. Dealer refused to have vehicle evaluated, or inspected. Dealer did not return my call and fisker motors did not return my calls. Car lost all power, while driving on three occasions in first 60 miles. In one instance headlights and controls turned off at…
The high voltage lithium-ion battery is faulty and burns out or shorts out the battery modules
Service Brakes 1 Read
While driving the car, a 2012 fisker karma, at 35 mph, the car shut itself off, all lights on the dash illuminated, the brakes did not work and the steering was impaired leaving basic directional control only
Electrical System 1 Read
The contact owns a 2012 fisker karma. While driving 10 mph, the engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer. The technician diagnosed that the battery module needed to be replaced and would not be replaced under NHTSA campaign number: 11V598000 (electrical system). The manufacturer was not…
Karma years to avoid — and the clean ones
Complaints per model year. More reports usually means more cars on the road as well as more trouble, so read the crash and fire columns alongside the count.
| Model year | Complaints | Top system | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Electrical System | — | — |
The same model year, different builds
Every complaint carries the first 11 characters of the VIN — plant, year, body and engine. That is a production series, and complaints are spread across them very unevenly.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Distinct production series | 5 |
| Average complaints per series | 1 |
| Worst single series | 1 complaints |
| Average age at failure | 5.0 years |
A model average of 1 hides a worst series at 1. Enter a VIN above to see the numbers for that exact build instead of the model as a whole.
Owners reported these. Find out if yours is one of them.
- Complaints matched to the exact production run, not just the model
- What the car is worth given what tends to fail on it
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How we count
Every figure here comes from complaints owners filed with NHTSA — 1,100,006 of them, covering 1,982 models built between 1981 and 2026.
A complaint is an unverified report: someone wrote down what happened to their car. It is not a confirmed defect and not a recall. What makes the volume useful is the pattern — when thousands of owners of the same build describe the same failure, that is a signal no marketing brochure will give you.
Two things we do that the source does not. First, we compute the age of the car at the moment of failure from the incident date and the model year. Second, we group complaints by the first 11 characters of the VIN — the production series — so a bad plant run does not disappear into a model-wide average.
Frequently asked questions
What are the worst years for the Karma?
By complaint volume, 2012 drew the most owner reports. Bear in mind that popular years put more cars on the road, so check the crash and fire columns too.
Which Karma years are the cleanest?
2012 have the fewest complaints on file. For recent years that can simply mean the cars are young.
How many complaints does the Fisker Karma have?
5 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, covering 2012–2012. Of those, 0 describe a crash and 0 a fire.
Are these complaints verified?
No. They are unverified reports from owners. NHTSA publishes them as filed and investigates only a fraction. The value is in the pattern, not in any single report.
Can I check complaints for one specific car?
Yes — enter its VIN above. We match the first 11 characters, which identify the plant, year, body and engine, so you get complaints on that exact production series rather than the whole model.