Fisker announces a four-seat plug-in hybrid convertible
Henrik Fisker is not slowing down. Following a positive reception to his Karma plug-in hybrid at the Detroit Auto Show, Fisker showed off the first picture of a two-door, four-seat convertible at the J.D. Power Roundtable in San Francisco today, according to Automotive News (subs req'd). That little picture is not all we know about this car, as Fisker said it will use the same PHEV powertrain as the Karma and will be available at around the same time (i.e., late 2009). If you've got an Automotive News subscription, you can see a larger version of the image above on the AN site. While the Karma has four-doors, there is a lot of styling carryover between the two vehicles (based on this one image). The wheels, grille, and body shape all look similar. The two obvious differences are the missing top and reduced number of doors. What do you see? (you can compare the shot above with a large 3/4 shot of the Karma here.
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[Source: Automotive News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Eric Boyd 9:20PM (2/08/2008)
Does the new car have a name?
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daniel garlick 8:40PM (2/16/2008)
People don't realize what a terrible idea it is to charge battery cars from your home. After electricity is produced at the power plant it has to run through a number of transformers before it comes to your home. Each transformer is terribly inefficent and they loose a large amount of electricity. So you will actually burning up more fuel, and producing more pollution, by running the generators at the power plant to charge your battery car than if you you just put the feul directly into your gas tank.
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why not the LS2/LS7? 4:10PM (2/09/2008)
Wait until they do some actual calculations and determine how much weight to have to add to a four door convertible to make it stuff enough that you can open and close the doors.
Making an efficient car on this platform will be very difficult.
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Scott S. 7:53PM (2/09/2008)
Yeah, the plug-in hybrids are really taking off. Just a couple days ago, Matter did an article on toyota's new plug-in, the 1/x.
http://www.matternetwork.com/2008/2/toyotas-plug-hybrid-has-small.cfm
Link
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Chris M 2:28AM (2/12/2008)
People don't realize what a terrible idea it is to fill your car at the gas station. Not only do you have to drive there, but the gas has to be transported from the refinery by truck, using much more fuel!
Mr. Garlick, while there are some losses in electricity distribution, it is far less than the losses for gasoline distribution. The electric grid averages about 97% efficiency, batteries and chargers about 85%, electric motors 95%, and the typical fossil fueled power plant is about 45% efficient. Compare that with the efficiency of oil refineries, fuel transport, and the very poor efficiency of the standard gasoline vehicle. Driving "electric" will go at least 3x farther for the same amount of fossil fuel - and since electricity can come from renewable sources, it could be fossil fuel free!
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