Saturday, December 6, 2025

Fisker Coachbuild: Forgotten Automotive Manufacturers | The Each day Drive

One thing of a facet undertaking.

Fisker Latigo CS, silver
Fisker Latigo CS

Between jobs, because it have been, automotive designer Henrick Fisker took a bit day without work to do some artwork. That artwork, in fact, was automotive, however in comparison with designing all-new autos, Fisker selected to work with autos already in manufacturing, sparing himself appreciable improvement time, in addition to price. This “facet undertaking,” was named Fisker Coachbuild, and it produced simply two completely different autos, and never very lots of them. (Click on right here for extra Forgotten Automotive Manufacturers.)

Historical past

Fisker Tramonto, Silver, top down, profile
Fisker Tramanto

This facet hustle passed off between 2005 and 2007. On Fisker’s resume, the Coachbuild undertaking falls between his time working for the likes of Aston Martin, BMW, and Ford (largely between 1988 and 2005) and his founding of luxurious range-extended-electric car maker Fisker Automotive (2007-2013). Henrick would later set up EV start-up Fisker, Inc. (2016-2024), which constructed the ill-fated Fisker Ocean electrical crossover.

Latigo CS and Tramanto

Fisker produced two automobiles whereas working Coachbuild, the Latigo CS, and the Tramanto. The Latigo was a coupe primarily based on the up to date BMW 645i, whereas the convertible Tramanto was primarily based on the Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG. The physique work was carried out in Italy by coach builder Stola. Observe that Fisker left the interiors of those automobiles largely untouched.

Costs

Whereas costs diversified primarily based on choices and particular requests, the automobiles got here in at round $300,000 every, together with the worth of the donor automobile. All advised, Fisker Coachbuild, which was headquartered in Irvine, California, assembled 18 autos throughout it’s three years in operation.

Gross sales

Fisker Tramanto, rear 3/4, top down, silver
Fisker Tramanto

Particularly, the corporate completed 15 Tramantos, 2 Latigos, and 1 high-performance M6-based Latigo, the Latigo CS V10.

Weak Demand

Operation’s ceased when it grew to become clear that demand for the custom-body autos was too low to make a go of the projected. Fisker had initially deliberate to promote 150 examples of every mannequin, after which transfer on to new designs.

Resale Worth

The Coachbuild automobiles haven’t held their worth effectively. A 2007 Tramanto just lately bought for simply $33,000, not rather more than ten p.c of its unique retail value. That mentioned, the automobiles don’t appear to commerce palms usually, so establishing a price historical past could be troublesome. However that’s OK, the entire undertaking was actually simply facet hustle, anyway.

Fisker Latigo CS, silver profile, 2006
Fisker Latigo CS

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