Fisker Auto chooses Porsche vet to make Karma

Fisker Automotive on Monday said that Valmet Automotive of Finland, which makes the Porsche Boxster and Cayman, will manufacture the Fisker Karma.

The Fisker Karma will be a luxury plug-in hybrid sedan the company intends to start selling in the fourth quarter of 2009 to North American customers with an expected price of about $80,000.

The Fisker Karma luxury sedan, a plug-in hybrid with a 50-mile range on battery alone.

(Credit: Fisker Automotive)

In addition to announcing its manufacturing partner, Fisker Automotive revealed a few more specifics on the Karma, which the company started test-driving earlier this year.

The Karma will have a range of 50 miles from a custom-built lithium-ion battery. The full range, using both its gasoline tank and battery, will be more than 350 miles. Fuel efficiency will be over 100 miles per gallon for extended drives.

Top speed will be 125 miles per hour, and acceleration will be 0 to 60 in less than six seconds.

The news of a manufacturing partner comes a few days after rival Tesla Motors started production of its all-electric, $100,000 Roadster.

The two companies are also in a legal battle; Tesla has accused Fisker Automotive CEO Henrik Fisker and a colleague of stealing company information when they did design work for Tesla.

Fisker Automotive projects that sales to European customers will be in 2010 and that annual production will be 15,000 cars.

In an interview with CNET News earlier this year, Henrik Fisker said that the company intends to follow the Karma with a sedan that will cost about $40,000.

[theBike45]

Now this is the practical car that tesla missed the boat on. Why would anyone ever buy a Tesla that can't reach any destination over 100 miles away and still get back home, and
has a battery pack that costs $25,000 and last only 5 years. The Tesla is an oxymoron and costs more than the faster, better looking and practical Karma. The Karma will put Tesla out of business, so apparently Tesla thinks they can destroy the competition by suing them with this flimsy lawsuit. According to the law experts, Tesla doesn't have a chance of winning

[mactechie]

So this car has a 3.5 gallon gas tank? 350 miles / 100 mpg = 3.5 gallons. I think the mileage estimates on this car are a bit overstated. If you had a normal sized gas tank, say 12 gallons, you wouldn't understate the range which would be 1200 miles if you really got 100 mpg. People would be all over a car that went 1200 miles on a tank of gas. I think we can officially place this article in the vaporware category.

[aka_mythos]

It's probably such a small tank of gas to allow for the weight and size of the batteries added. Also realize that the tesla is available now, the Karma is still over a year off. The tesla is effectively designed with 2 year old technology while the Karma is more current and when your at the forefront as both are it makes a difference. So while it maybe tempting to compare these two upstarts it might be better to look at the Karma relative to the next gen of Tesla that is being developed.

[igolga]

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