Detroit Show: Fisker's $80,000 Good Karma
By John O'Dell January 14, 2008
Fisker Karma sports slinky body and powerful plug-in hybrid system.
Ferrari's ethanol 430 Spider made a splash, as did Audi's concept of stuffing its race-winning V12 diesel engine into the R8 supercar. But for our money the eco-friendly exotic that wins the green trophy at this year's North American International Auto show is the "eco-chic" Karma from Fisker Automotive.
The sexy four-seat, four-door coupe unveiled at the show this afternoon is a plug-in gas-electric hybrid that company president Henrik Fisker, a former top BMW and Aston Martin designer, says will top out at 125 miles per hour, hit 60 in under 6 seconds, and deliver up to 50 miles of all-electric travel at highway speeds on an overnight charging of its hefty lithium-ion battery pack.
That makes the Karma a heck of a lot greener than the cars from Ingolstadt and Maranello, and its starting price of $80,000 makes it a heck of a lot cheaper.
Fisker, who designed the striking sport coupe from the ground up to house a plug-in system originally developed for the U.S. military by Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide
, said he wanted to do a green car that still provided monied customers the luxury, looks and performance levels most demand in their vehicles.
"The environment concerns all of us," he said in an interview at Fisker Automotive's showroom stand. The surprisingly well-located exhibit, on prime real estate just inside the main entrance and right next to Mercedes-Benz and Rolls Royce, indicates that (a) somebody thinks Fisker is a real car company as newcomers usually are relegated to subterranean halls and corridors until they've proven themselves, or (b) Fisker has a ton of money to spend to rent a prime location -- which, come to think of it, also would indicate that it's got a good chance of making the grade.
Fisker, who left Aston Martin to start Fisker Coachbuild several years ago to design custom bodies and interior treatments that turn mass-produced luxury cars into quasi-custom vehicles, said the Karma is all-new, from chassis to optional solar panel roof.
That's because Quantum's plug-in hybrid system is too big to fit a production car.
The two companies formed their joint venture, Fisker Automotive, last year after a chance encounter in which Quantum Chief Executive Alan Niedzwiecki complained that his company had a proven lithium-ion plug-in hybrid system but couldn't interest conventional automakers in it because of its size, Fisker said.
In addition to its plug-in work for the military, Quantum has developed a number of plug-in hybrid conversions of the Ford Escape Hybrid for a test program run but the South Coast Air Quality Management District in Southern California. Irvine, California-based Quantum also owns several automotive chassis-building businesses.
The heart of the proprietary Q-Drive plug-in system used in the Karma is a long, narrow battery pack that runs nearly the length of the car, dividing the passenger cabin the way an oversized driveshaft tunnel would in a conventional rear-wheel-drive car.
Inside, Karma is white leather, polished steel and orange accent lighting.
Fisker and Niedzwiecki would't divulge details about the battery pack except to say it uses real automotive-quality lithium-ion cells and isn't a series of wired-together laptop cells as is the case with Tesla Motorcars' upcoming battery-electric roadster.
The pack is much larger than those fitted into experimental plug-in hybrids being tested by Ford and Toyota, providing energy storage and power to give the car its high-speed and hefty all-electric range.
Like the so-called range-extended electric systems shown last year by General Motors in its Chevrolet Volt concept and Ford Motor Co. in its Hy-Motion concept, the Fisker system uses its conventional engine only as a generator to produce juice for the batteries and rear-mounted electric motor that propels the car.
Fisker said he expects the Karma to deliver up to 350 miles on a tank of gas as the engine cycles on and off during long trips as it charges the batteries and then shuts down until they are depleted again.
He said he likes the plug-in concept because the batteries initially are charged from the retail power grid – or from solar or wind-powered generators – and that charge enables motorists to drive 50 miles without kicking in the gas engine.
“Allowing consumers the ability to drive emission free not only cuts down on pollution, but could help reduce America's dependence on foreign oil,†he said.
"More than 60 percent of Americans and Europeans are driving less than 50 miles on their daily commutes, and if they drove plug-in hybroids like ours it would be the fastest way to reduce both oil consumption and air pollution from emissions," Fisker said.
While other automakers still are testing lithium-ion automotive batteries and worrying about reliability and potential overheating problems that have caused fires in some laptop computers, Fisker says Quantum resolved the problems with complex power management software developed for military use.
"This is ready to go," he said of the Quantum hybrid system. "It was tested in secret for three years by the military. We've probably done more lithium-ion testing than any other car company."
Fisker said he anticipates global sales of 15,000 vehicles a year once production is ramped up, with the first cars to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Vic Doolan, former head of both BMW North America and Volvo Cars North America, has signed on to set up Fisker Automotive's retail network – dealerships will be dedicated Fisker stores, typically paired with an existing premium brand dealership.
While production won't begin until next year, Fisker plans to begin taking reservations immediately, requiring a refundable $1,000 deposit to secure a place on the company's delivery list.
It's the same formula he used when he launched Fisker Coachbuild. He won't release sales data but said this summer that the privately owned company had delivered more than a dozen of its reskinned BMWs and Mercedes-Benz coupes.
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