Detroit 2008: Fisker Karma live reveal
The look of the Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid that was unveiled in Detroit today is not a surprise. We saw a sneak peek of it all the way back in October. It was on the last day of October, but still. The difference is that now we got to oooh and aaah over this expensive and sleek (and I'm tempted to say shark-like, because that's what it reminded me of) PHEV hybrid in person after the curtain dropped this afternoon. I stood in the polite scrum and shot y'all some pictures of the Karma, just in case you can't find $80,000 to buy a Karma, the first vehicle from Fisker Automotive, Inc. in a few years. The company says it hopes to sell 15,000 Karmas a year when these go on sale towards the end of 2009.
The Karma has impressive performance numbers, with a 0-60 time of under six seconds and a top speed of more than 125 mph. The vehicle is moved by something called the Q Drive, which will be found in all future Fisker Karma derivatives, and has two driving modes: Stealth Drive (a nice name for electric only) and Sport Drive (which uses both parts of the hybrid drivetrain). Should you plug the Karma in at night, you can get 50 miles of EV-only driving. Unlike most high-end sports cars in the green realm (the Tesla Roadster, for example), the Karma has four doors. Like all of the others, this will remain tantalizingly out of reach for most of us. Still, one more player in this realm never hurts.
Video on the way after the jump.
Related:
Fisker Automotive
Fisker Automotive, Inc. - the green American premium car company proudly presents its first vehicle, the Karma, a four-door plug-in hybrid premium sports sedan with a starting price of $80,000. Initial deliveries will commence in the 4th quarter of 2009 with annual production projected to reach 15,000 cars.
Visit the Fisker Automotive website to learn more: http://www.fiskerautomotive.com
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
dave 5:03AM (8/30/2008)
how can I buy one ??????
Reply
GoodCheer 5:01PM (1/14/2008)
We've been hearing about the Fisker for a while now, and they certainly got their money's worth from the body designers (in my opinion). It's exciting that they think they can get to the point of building 15,000/year 24 months from now, but it makes me curious: Has anybody heard of a rolling prototype of this vehicle? Have they showed anybody anything other than a beautiful body and a half page of tantalizing performance numbers?
Reply
Tim 5:34PM (1/14/2008)
You know what I REALLY love about this article?
Sebastian says “Still, one more player in this realm never hurts.”
Compare this to just one year ago when nobody had even heard of an E-REV!
PHEVs are finally happening and it kind of brings a tear to my eye…
Death to Oil!
No plug? NO SALE!!
Reply
stevejust 5:23PM (1/14/2008)
I visited their website last night after photos leaked at jalopnik.com. Sort of like Tesla, you can drop $100,000 for the first 100 of them, and if you want to preorder one, it's a mere $1,000 deposit. www.fiskerautomotive.com
I kind of need it to plug into a 110 outlet though, and I've not seen the answer to whether you need a 220 volt outlet in your garage...
Reply
Tim 5:50PM (1/14/2008)
High oil prices? You ain’t seen nothing yet
If you think $100 per barrel oil is costly, consider $180 per barrel oil.
http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/416233463.shtml
Reply
Sassan 7:01PM (1/14/2008)
Why is it that none of PHEV car companies tell you how many Watt-Hours it takes to charge their batteries? The furthest they go is to say whether you need to plug it into 110 Volt or a 220 Volt socket and approximately how many hours it takes to recharge. Am I missing something?
Reply
stevejust 8:47PM (1/14/2008)
@GoodCheer: Fisker actually makes two other cars. I've seen them in real life, never driven them. I saw them on display on Rodeo Drive at the Concurs d'Elegance on Father's Day last year. They're also for sale down the street from me on Wilshire. You can check them out on Fisker's other website: www.Fiskercb.com.
In other words, Fisker's not like Tesla where they never made a car before and need someone else to build it for them. Now whether the performance of the Karma will be anything close to what they're claiming, and whether the batteries won't crap out in a year of driving is a whole other story. But I'm willing to find out the hard way -- I preordered one.
Reply
Dave B 9:12PM (1/14/2008)
Steve @ 6, congrats and I'm a little jealous. This car blows the Volt away...of course you could buy almost 3 Volts for the price...theoretically.
So much to choose from, but I'd like to see one on the road before I drop that much doe.
Reply
Peter 11:13PM (1/14/2008)
Fisker doesn't make the Latigo or the Tramonto. BMW and Mercedes do; Fisker just puts a new body on them. It's the same setup they are using with this car - Fisker makes the body, Quantum Technologies makes the powertrain.
Except that Quantum Technologies is not an established car company either.
Reply
eddy 4:51AM (1/15/2008)
Well Fisker has a lot of experience in the automotive industrie. And the drivetrain that quantum technologies builds is know for its qualities. Quantum is not a startup but in buisness for quite a time. Surely not as a traditional carproducer but has done some working projekts for other companies. I think Fisker will debut like it has been planned, because the special QTWW drivetrain is just a licensed working allready product which is almost market-ready.
Reply
stevejust 2:37PM (1/15/2008)
@Peter-- you are correct. I knew they were using the engines from the AMG SL55 in the convertible, and a BMW engine in the coupe. I didn't realize they were using everything else and just doing a re-body and re-interior. I thought they were doing their own suspensions and what not, and just dropping the engine and tranmission into their rolling chasis.
So I guess we'll see if they can beat Tesla to their own projections of readiness. In the meantime, at least, I hope to get insider updates on progress.
Reply