(image credit: Fisker Automotive) Fisker Karma EVer | from US$88,000.00 | www.fiskerautomotive.com
Fisker Automotive announced on Monday the production of the first Karma hybrid plug-in vehicles which are expected to be ready to ship out to its retail locations in US and Europe to serves as demonstrator models. for those who has put in money for the Karma, you can expect shipment in June and July this year and Fisker expects to fulfill those orders by October. the vehicles will be manufactured in small quantity at Valment Automotive in Finland with production numbers to be slowly ramped up to avoid any production hiccups. makes sense. since there’s no point in rushing and delivering less-than-ideal products.
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for the uninitiated, the Fisker Karma is a four-seater extended range electric vehicle. this dual electric rear motors, rear wheel drive vehicle features a mid-mounted battery pack and a front mounted internal combustion engine with generator. electric drive are a pair of electric motor rated at 150 kW each, effectively giving the car some 403 horsepower. battery is in the form of 20 kWh Lithium-ion located longitudinally below the floorpan, along the center line of the vehicle. the ICE upfront is a turbocharged 2.0 liter direction injection engine producing 260 horsepower. the vehicle is constructed on lightweight extruded aluminum space frame clad with lightweight aluminum and composite body panels.
like all good electric vehicle, advance regenerative blended brake system is in place to recapture the energy generated from braking to further improves its range. the Karma is also fitted with the world’s largest solar roof panel rated at 120 kW which is capable of supplying 0.5 kWh of energy per day. four custom Fisker designed 22-inch wheels wrapped in 255/35/R22 Goodyear upfront and 285/35/R22 Goodyear, takes on the traction duty. on pure electric drive (aka Stealth mode), the Karma is capable of a sub-8 seconds century sprint and achieve a top speed of 153 km/h. under the sports mode, the ICE kicks in to support the electric motors which propels the vehicle from zero to 100 km/h in just 5.9 seconds heading on to a top speed of 200 km/h.
one thing to note is, the Karma is a hybrid, hence the internal combustion engine has no part in the driving the car. the ICE merely provides electricity power to support the rear electric motors.