Original Tesla rival is back with Fisker Emotion

Well-known automobile designer of the iconic BMW Z8 and a number of Aston Martins, Henrik Fisker returns to the car game with the electric Fisker EMotion, which he will unveil at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The designer backed by a federal loan, had launched his own car company with a sleek plug-in hybrid sedan, the Karma. At the time Tesla was trying to get its Model S sedan off the ground.

However, production stopped in 2013 over battery woes and financial issues that led to bankruptcy.

This time, his rakish new sedan boasts upward-opening gullwing-style doors for both front- and rear-seat passengers. It also comes with a modernist interior, 400-mile battery range and a $129,000 base price. The EMotion will also incorporate sensors critical to self-driving.

''I pushed myself to move car design forward without losing what we love about the automotive shape,'' Fisker told USA Today over phone from  Las Vegas.

Fisker EMotion comes with unique doors that pivot up and out of the way, allowing for easier ingress and egress into the 400-mile range EV.

Emotion has all-wheel drive, huge 24-inch Pirelli tires, five Quanergy sensors for autonomous driving, carbon fibre and aluminum chassis construction.

It also has a four-zone electrically adjustable tinted roof, is 16 feet in length, is 5 feet high, or roughly the same as a Tesla Model S.

In 2014, Wanxiang America, the Illinois-based subsidiary of China's Wanxiang Group, acquired the intellectual property and assets of the defunct Fisker Automotive for $150 million.

Soon afterwards Karma Automotive was established and in 2017, the company began customer deliveries of its first model - the resurrected sedan formerly known as the Fisker Karma.