Fisker’s ultra fast-charging EMotion saloon is coming to CES

Thought you’d wait for an old-fashioned ‘motor show’ to have a butchers at the new Fisker EMotion, did you? No, that’s not how the car reveal game works these days. You must flaunt it at a tech show. Which is why Fisker is bringing the new EMotion, with its fast-charging capability and self-driving prowess to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas come January 2018. That’s right, the EMotion will stand alongside new VR headsets and audio systems, rather than a hall of overpolished motor cars.

The technology behind the Fisker’s ‘real-world autonomous driving’ are the LiDAR sensors, which 3D-map their environment so the car can accurately identify obstacles, other road users, and so on. As carmakers struggle to integrate the massive amount of cameras, sensors and lasers/radars into the noses of their cars, Fisker’s going to make the centre ‘nosecone’ of the EMotion its trademark, proudly putting the LiDAR gubbins front and centre as a styling feature. 

Quanergy, the company providing the crucial technology, said: “Our leading LiDAR sensors will elevate the autonomous capabilities of the EMotion to support Henrik [Fisker’s] vision of a truly autonomous and connected experience in a luxury automobile that will further advance the world’s view of autonomous and electric vehicles.”

Fisker’s previously revealed that the EMotion will be built around the world’s largest EV battery pack (hence its giant wheelbase) and ought to be capable of a 400-mile range. A new ‘Ultra Charger’ network promises you’ll be able to juice the batteries to the tune of 125 miles worth of driving in only nine minutes. With a base price of $129,900, this is no bargain Tesla rival, before you start with the Elon comparisons, but you can be sure this will ignite a whole new inferno of EV superfan mudslinging. Tesla Autopilot vs LiDAR. Ultra Charge vs Superchargers. Model S, Model X and Model 3 vs the EMotion. And that’s before the new Audi e-tron and Porsche Mission E arrive. At an actual motor show, perhaps…