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Click to view more photos of the Fisker Karma.

(Credit: Fisker Automotive)

The world of plug-in hybrids is about to get a whole lot sexier when the production Fisker Karma debuts at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show.

Fisker has released early photos of the production version of the Karma, which isn't that much different from the concept revealed earlier this year at the 2008 Detroit Show.

Its mustachioed face has survived the jump to production essentially intact, although the lower grill opening has been enlarged a bit, to make it more practical for cooling we'd assume. Amber reflectors have been added to the leading edge of the wheel well and small fender vents have been added just aft of the front wheels. The LED tail lamps, huge 22-inch wheel and tire package, and (hooray!) solar-panel roof all look like they will see showroom floors.

The Karma concept debuted at last year's Detroit Auto Show.

(Credit: Fisker Automotive)

Under the Karma's swooping hood is a 22.6 kWh electric motor coupled with a GM-sourced turbocharged, direct-inject 2.0L four-cylinder Ecotec engine--the same fantastic mill that powers the Chevy Cobalt SS tested earlier. Together the two powerplants produce about 400 horsepower and a 5.8 second 0-60 time. Keep your foot planted and the Karma will eventually top out somewhere around 125 mph.

The driver will be able to select between two modes of driving. The first mode is Stealth Drive, which is the economy mode for quiet and efficient driving. By flipping the second paddle behind the steering wheel, the car will switch to Sport Drive, which will activate the full power of the vehicle.

Here's something else that's changed: the price. It appears that Fisker is bumping the asking price for the Karma up to about $87,000 (was $80,000). If that's not too rich for your blood, Fisker is taking pre-orders for late 2010 delivery.

View more photos of the Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid.

Toyota Motor plans to produce lithium ion batteries next year for a plug-in hybrid vehicle available in 2010.

The company on Wednesday said that the plug-in hybrid will be "geared toward fleet customers in Japan, (the) United States, and Europe."

A joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic EV Energy plans to begin production of lithium ion batteries next year and move to full-scale production in 2010. Using the battery, Toyota plans to introduce a small electric vehicle for mass production.

Toyota's Prius, numbering a million sold, uses a nickel metal hydride battery. Lithium ion batteries, which are heavily used in consumer electronics, are being built into an upcoming generation of hybrid-electric and plug-in hybrid cars.

Later in the month, Toyota plans to establish a research-and-development center for next-generation batteries that outperform lithiom ion batteries.

The company, which also continues to invest in fuel cell vehicles, recently began a lease program in Japan.

Toyota disclosed on Wednesday its plug-in hybrid production plans at a company-sponsored environmental forum in Tokyo, where it outlined its greenhouse gas reduction and clean-technology plans.

A123 Systems has created a Web site where Toyota Prius owners can preorder a battery to convert their cars to plug-in hybrids capable of getting well over 100 miles per gallon.

The switch from hybrid to plug-in hybrid doesn't come cheap, though. The battery and installation costs $9,995, plus an extra $400 "destination fee" and taxes.

The battery, called Hymotion 5, is designed to fit into the spare tire slot underneath the trunk of Prius model years 2004 to 2008. The company didn't say when the batteries would be available.

The Hymotion L5 battery from A123 Systems converts a Toyota Prius to a plug-in hybrid.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET News.com)

A123 Systems said the extended-life battery has been tested over 200,000 miles of "real life" conditions and that it should not void Toyota's warranty unless it's directly responsible for a failure.

There are a number of converted plug-in hybrids, but they are not yet manufactured from automakers. Last year, A123 Systems bought Hymotion, which has a network of installers who are expert in plug-in hybrids.

With a plug-in hybrid, a person can boost gas efficiency from about 40 miles per gallon in a Prius to more than 100 miles per gallon depending on what kind of driving you do. If there is a lot of stop and go driving for trips under about 30 miles, the braking system can recharge the battery and substantially cut down on gas use.

The Web site underscores the large interest in plug-in hybrid cars for purely environmental reasons, rather than saving money on fuel.

Rather than calculate the return on investment, the site allows consumers to calculate what sort of gas mileage they can expect and how it will affect their carbon footprint.

Although there are not any production plug-in hybrids, Toyota and General Motors are expected to release their own versions.

GM, in fact, has signed up for a partnership with A123 Systems to use its lithium ion battery with the Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid that can run on different liquid fuels.

City driving offers better mileage than highway in a plug-in hybrid.

(Credit: A123 Systems)

FoxyTunes inserts a music player control panel into the Status Bar of Firefox and Internet Explorer, eliminating the scramble to switch windows so you can skip that Barry Manilow ditty you forgot to delete from your collection. The interface is easy to use and is highly customizable.

When opened, it shows a navigation array with buttons for Play, Pause, Mute, Next Track, Last Track, Volume, and the useful Show Player, which brings your music player to the front. There's also a Hide Player button, as well as a music Search tool, keyboard shortcuts, skins, and a mini player that places the application controls on your desktop as long as your browser is running.

Supported players include iTunes, Winamp, RealPlayer, XMPlay, and Last.fm, as well as nearly two dozen others and a "custom player" option. Lyric and album art searches are complemented by skins, native music discovery, and automatic ''Now Playing'' inserts into your blog posts and Twitter feed. FoxyTunes' strengths are in the depth of available features plus the level of customization. Its weaknesses? Only that you'll wish all add-ons were this good.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Silicon Valley is sparking a revolution in alternative-fuel autos, but it may take awhile--too long perhaps--to effect change in Detroit, according to a panel of auto executives.

A group of electric and traditional carmakers spoke here Friday at the Joint Venture Silicon Valley conference about innovation, why alternative carmakers are attracted to the Valley, and whether nimble upstarts can overshadow the big Detroit automakers. The consensus was that Silicon Valley is commanding the attention of the auto world, whether it will dominate or not.

"We're not going to take over China or Detroit, but every carmaker has an outpost here and is watching what people are doing," said Felix Kramer, founder of nonprofit plug-in hybrid initiative CalCars. "This can be a real incubation area for new technology in automotive."

To be sure, Silicon Valley is rife with change when it comes to the merger of technology and autos.

Volkswagen, for example, recently funded Stanford University in order to develop a new car lab whose mission is to study "cutting-edge research in safety, comfort, and fun for the consumer driving the car," said Sebastian Thrun, while speaking at an artificial intelligence conference Thursday night. The lab, which will open later this year, will focus on new technologies such as computer-assisted driving--for instance, a car that could park itself. Eventually, self-driving or smart cars could help make driving more efficient and safe, Thrun said.

"When kids can drive themselves to soccer, and do away with the soccer parent, humanity will be better off," Thrun said.

Elon Musk's Tesla Motors, also based in Silicon Valley, is delivering its first production models of an electric two-seater roadster, for a price of nearly $100,000. It eventually plans to sell a four-door electric car for about half the price and then even more affordable models later.

Another Palo Alto upstart called Project Better Place, founded by former SAP executive Shai Agassi, recently announced that it will team with Renault and Nissan car companies, along with the Israeli government, to develop electric cars and electric-battery stations in that nation. It has raised $200 million to produce lithium-ion batteries and the facilities to recharge those batteries--and its cars are expected to be ready by 2011.

Google, based in Mountain View, also recently announced Recharge It, a project to convert hybrids to plug-in hybrids and test vehicle-to-grid technology, in which the vehicle's battery powers the electrical grid. Milpitas-based OEMtek is charging people $12,500 to convert their Toyota Prius into a more efficient car (getting 100 miles per gallon vs. 45 miles per gallon) with a larger battery.

San Dimas-based AC Propulsion, which makes an all-electric Scion eBox for $70,000, is also opening up an office in Palo Alto to service customers here, according to Tom Gage, CEO of AC Propulsion who spoke on the panel. (Gage drives an eBox, an electric car that gets 120 miles on one charge. The company's first customer was actor Tom Hanks.) AC Propulsion also supplies technology to Tesla Motors.

So why is Silicon Valley such a hotbed for alternative cars? It's the customers.

"The driving public here is among the most enlightened in environmental and policy issues," Gage said.

CalCars' Kramer, added to the sentiment: "The plug-in hybrid is the first thing to come here because of popular demand," he said, referring to the movement behind CalCars, Ourpower.org, and Google's plug-in effort. "There's a different customer here in the Valley, and that's why we favor this area."

Backing up his point, 30 percent of the people in the audience said in a poll that they drove a hybrid to the conference.

Byron Shaw, managing director of the Advanced Technology Office at General Motors and who's based here, spoke on the panel about the goals of GM, which is one of the first major car companies to say that it will develop a plug-in hybrid. Shaw said that the company plans to introduce the first rendition of the plug-in Chevy Volt in 2010 along with similar versions for the Saturn. He said that GM will also sell a bevy of alternative-fuel vehicles in the next decade, including electric cars, fuel cell cars, and vehicle-to-grid plug-ins.

"There's an opportunity to bring Silicon Valley and the auto industry together because the two don't always march to the same drum," he said. "We have a wealth of experience of building vehicles, but there are things changing that now, such as the conventional cost of fossil fuels. In the same way Silicon Valley has driven down costs of technology, it may happen with the auto industry, too."

That said, GM is slower than the technology industry, he said, and the company is driven by a fickle consumer. One consideration, for example, is that the battery for a hybrid plug-in must operate well in cold climates like Minnesota as well as warmer places like Phoenix. "The supply base just isn't there for electric vehicles," he said.

AC Propulsion's Gage said that after working in Detroit for eight years, he's seen that car companies can change for the consumer, but it will be especially challenging in the alternative fuel market.

"It's a major transformation for the car companies," he said, "the power train is different; fuel sources are different. We have to start small and build a market base, and it has to appeal to consumers. To come back to this, Silicon Valley is more advanced in this area. Grassroots efforts will continue."

CalCars' Kramer went further with his criticism.

"They're being too slow. It's a major wedge for climate change. They need to learn about versioning--getting cars on the road and seeing what people like," Kramer said.

The panelists finished by predicting how many cars would be electric or plug-in hybrid by 2028. Two of the men, Shaw and Kramer, forecast that it would be 80 percent of cars on the road by then. Gage was more conservative at only 20 percent. The question is: Will that be enough to turn the tide of global warming?

iTunes Control's pop-up track info box.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

For many Windows users, Apple's iTunes is a mixed bag. It offers many of the music and video jukebox services we all want, but it's often sluggish and the polar opposite of customizable. A new freeware plug-in called iTunes Control gives us all a chance to remedy at least part of that situation.

... Read more

If you've got a fancy job in the Bay Area, you're probably going to get the sales call from Sass Somekh.

Somekh, the former president of equipment maker Novellus and an alum of Applied Materials, has started OurPower.org as a way to promote plug-in hybrid conversions. Converting a regular Prius to a plug-in isn't cheap. The price runs about $10,000. Even if gas rises to $4 a gallon, it would still take nearly 100,000 miles of driving before you broke even. (OurPower.org is working with A123 Systems, the lithium-ion battery maker, to perform the conversions.)

Rather than try to promote this on the mass market, Somekh is hitting up CEOs and other heavy-hitters in the area. If they convert their cars, the reasoning goes, their ever-obsequious vice presidents will follow.

So far, he seems to be drawing a crowd. People who have committed to a conversion include Aart J. de Geus, chairman of Synopsis; Erik Straser, a partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures; Gary Dickerson, CEO of Varian Semiconductor; and Cal Chow, CEO of Nanosys.

Plug-ins are better for the environment in most states than regular gas because they get 100 miles a gallon or so. (In Ohio and other coal-heavy states, plug-ins are close in total emissions to regular cars.) Out of all the alt fuel car concepts swirling around these days, plug-ins seem to have the broadest support.

Somekh also has formed a small venture firm focused on green investments called Musea Ventures. The firm was one of many that put money into Project Better Place, Shai Agassi's company that will install electric charging stations as a way to promote electric cars and plug-in hybrids.

One of the criticisms of electric cars has been the range. They can only go 250 miles or less on a charge. One idea that might get around that problem: electric car companies, in conjunction with electric charging stations, could allow customers free use of gas cars kept on-site or in the hands of car rental organizations like Zipcar. That way, you could buy an electric car and, when you need it, get your hands on an SUV for a long trip into the mountains.

Somekh reiterated that he doesn't speak for Project Better Place, but it's an interesting idea.

Nik's Viveza will ship later this quarter for about $250.

(Credit: Nik Software)

LAS VEGAS--Nik Software on Wednesday announced a new variant of its photo-editing software that will run as a plug-in to Adobe Systems' Photoshop.

The company's Viveza plug-in brings the "U Point" editing method, already available in Nik's Capture NX software, to Photoshop. The software functions as a Photoshop smart filter, which means it can be applied nondestructively and updated later.

Viveza will ship in the first quarter for Windows and Mac OS X and cost about $250, Nik said at the Photo Marketing Association trade show here.

The U Point system is an attempt to simplify photo-editing tasks that often require complicated selection and masking operations. Placing control points on an image gives users sliders to adjust color, saturation, lighting, and other parameters, and those adjustments also affect other parts of the image similar to where the control point is located.

Fisker Automotive formally unveiled its upscale hybrid car today and said it has received an infusion of cash from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Ooooh. Ahhhh.

(Credit: CNET Networks )

The investment is believed to be the first direct investment by Kleiner Perkins into an alternative car company. (Rumors swirled that the company invested in Phoenix Motorcars, but it was never confirmed, and Phoenix subsequently had delays). Fisker did not officially release the amount of the investment but Kleiner partner Ray Lane told the Wall Street Journal that the investment exceeds $10 million.

The company is founded by noted automotive designer Henrik Fisker. He came up with the BMW Z8 and the Aston Martin DB9, among other cars that most of us can't afford. Fisker's Karma (the name of the car) will cost around $80,000 and go from 0 to 60 in six seconds. It has a top speed of 125 miles an hour. The picture comes from the Detroit auto show taking place this week.

The Karma operates like the Chevy Volt. The car runs on lithium-ion batteries, which get recharged by a small gas motor on the car. The battery can also be recharged from a plug in the wall. Because the Karma can go fifty miles on a charge, most people won't even use gas on their daily commute: the average commute in the good ol' USA is 40 miles a day. An integrated solar panel in the roof helps charge it up while driving.

Fisker, which talked about the car last October at a conference in Silicon Valley, wants to start producing cars in the fourth quarter of 2009. If it hits its goal, it could become the first company to sell factory-built plug-in hybrids. Toyota and GM have said they will come out with plug-in hybrids by 2010. Fisker wants to ultimately sell 15,000 of the cars a year. That could be a stretch, but the high-end car market is growing all the time. The company will also do two-door versions and SUVs.

Expect to see the hybrid vs. electric debate heat up quite a bit this year. On the hybrid and plug-in hybrid side sit Toyota, GM, Fisker, and a few others. On the all-electric side sit Tesla, Miles, Phoenix, etc. Then there are companies like Nissan Venture Vehicles that will do both. Plug-in hybrids don't get the same gas mileage as full electric cars, but they can go a few hundred miles before conking out--electric cars tap out at 120 to 225 miles. Plug-ins also run on smaller batteries, which lowers the price. Experts such as James Woolsey, former CIA director and now energy guru at consulting firm McKinsey, lauds plug-ins, as do others. But ultimately, the customer will decide.

The hybrid drive system in the Karma comes from Quantum Technologies, which has worked in the automotive industry for years on various non-fossil fuel technologies. Quantum is also an investor.