Quotes from Henrik Fisker

When I was at BMW and Aston Martin, I realized how difficult and how many resources it takes to create a car - let alone a car company.

You know what? Starting a car company is risky.

A painting doesn't have to have a real usability other than you looking at it. Obviously, a car, an engine, or battery has to fit people's needs.

I remember, as a kid, riding in the back of my dad's old Saab 95 in Denmark. We were on the highway, and suddenly this silver Maserati Bora came upon us, then passed. At the time, to me, this car looked like a spaceship.

The market needs a super car with no excuses.

The car is the most regulated thing in the world. It's more complicated to make a car than it is to send a rocket to space.

I come from Denmark; Fisker Automotive comes from California.

When I see a car I've designed going down the street and somebody admiring it, that's a nice feeling.

I like to have the widest part of the car being the wheels and not the body. It gives it a more athletic look and, with the sculpture, helps make a car look sexy.

One of the big failures for the big auto companies is that even the CEO and the top management often don't understand design and manufacturing. As a CEO, you have to make decisions; you need to have knowledge.

As a car lover, I ask myself, 'What am I going to be buying in the future? Will it be a boring, underpowered, dorky car because the government tells me I shouldn't pollute? Or do I come up with a cool-looking, sexy dream car that is also part of the future?'

At a European auto show, I had someone from a German car company come up to me and say the Karma should cost $125,000, not $87,900, but our development process lets us lower the costs. I guarantee it's profitable.

I don't take on projects that are a hassle or when someone comes in and says, 'We really need this design,' and I'm like, 'OK, fine, I'll do it.' It really has to be something that I personally feel intrigued and excited about - any product, as long as I'm excited by it. It doesn't have to be a car.

I like to come up first of all with a free idea, thinking about and obviously understanding what is necessary for it to become a car.

Tesla has defied everyone's predictions again and again. It has such a unique position in the market, and so far, whatever people think about Tesla and its business model, there is one fact that nobody can dispute: It pretty much has the market to itself.

The car industry has invested a lot in hybrid, but my opinion is electric cars will take over a lot of hybrids quicker than people think now.

The biggest challenge is to build the team and start the company, while hiring people, raising money, building a brand which has no history, all at the same time. You're doing a lot of things that in an established company are already done.

You need to focus on creating the actual value of the company, not just the theoretical value. The actual value comes from a great product that sells well and is ultimately profitable.

Any car designer always dreams about designing their own car - if they say they don't, they're lying... For me, it was never about starting my own company just to make another car.

I could imagine that boats sailing in harbors will only use electric engines. And then once they are out in the water they will use diesel.

I've always wanted to design a Mustang. I just never really had the opportunity in my career because the timing was never right.

I'm kind of impatient. I like to see things realized and not just work on a project for three years and wait, wait, wait. I try to keep myself busy.

The implementation of autonomous driving needs a whole new rethinking. To really make it an attribute for society, we really need to think differently about where and when and how we implement this.

I want to explore the existing manufacturing abilities of Indian companies and create products together.