Electric car revolution faces increasing headwinds

DETROIT (Reuters) - Scott Kluth has a love-hate relationship with his new Fisker Karma luxury electric sedan.

DETROIT — The founder and executive chairman of Fisker Automotive Inc resigned from the cash-strapped “green car” startup on Wednesday, saying he was at odds with the automaker’s top executives over business strategy. Henrik Fisker announced his abrupt departure from the maker of the Karma plug-in hybrid in an email. He declined to describe the nature of the disagreements that prompted him to leave the company, which he founded with Barny Koehler in 2007.

Last week, the Chinese company Wanxiang got U.S. government approval to buy bankrupt lithium-ion cell maker A123 Systems.

The sudden resignation on Wednesday of Henrik Fisker, co-founder and executive chairman of hybrid electric automaker Fisker, puts the company's already uncertain future on even shakier ground.

It turns out that when peddling a flaming paperweight (recall "Total Karma Recall: Fisker Pulls All Cars Due To Fire Risk", "As Another Fisker Karma Spontaneously Combusts, "Green" Dreams Go Up In Smoke" and of course "Fisker Karma Is First Car To Burn Underwater"), even if it is a very pretty

Henrik Fisker, co-founder and executive chairman of electric car company Fisker Automotive, quit the company today.