saw a tesla model s sedan today
Who do you think designed the model s? Fisker auto did. The karma and model s are the exact same car with different frontends.
Nope.
Tesla makes the Model S. Everything on the "S", body, drivetrain, etc, is unique to it and produced by Tesla. The body was designed by Franz von Holzhausen, who used to work for Mazda. Initially Fisker Coachbuild did do some design work on the body of the Model S, but apparently they stole some ideas from the Model S and used them to develop the Karma, and Tesla sued, way back in 2008. Tesla's are built in Fremont now and entirely by Tesla.
The Fisker Karma isn't even a fully electric car like the Model S, its a hybrid with a GM ectotec 4 cylinder in it too. The Fisker's were made in Finland, and production was stopped last year because of financial issues. Supposedly Fisker is in bankruptcy trouble.
Different cars, different companies, made in different countries.
As far as the fire thing, it's totally overblown. 2 Tesla's have had fires, and both were after hitting road debris. Heck Ford had dozen's of SUV's catch fire while just sitting in the garage because of a faulty cruise control before anyone even
noticed. I suspect Tesla will have to go back and add some more protection for the battery pack, but realistically standard cars have fires because of road debris cutting fuel lines etc and it never makes the news.
"Green" or better for the environment is a whole different story. They charge off one of the most inefficient power grids in the world, and are chock full of nasty chemicals. Just trades one kind of pollution for another.
