Another California automotive startup, Fisker Automotive has plans for a luxury performance plugin hybrid (PHEV). The very slick looking 4 door car is powered by their Q Drive plugin hybrid system. The car will do 50 miles on pure electric power, so for many people their commute can be totally electric.

If you do need more than 50 miles range, there is a small gasoline engine in the car that will turn a generator to recharge the battery and run the electric motor.

Performance & Technology

The Karma can hold four passengers, accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in under 6 seconds and reach a top speed of 125 mph. It has two driving modes, Stealth and Sport, the former optimised for efficiency and the second for performance. Reading the features list you wouldn’t really guess that the car was a PHEV at all.

The exterior styling is distinctive, but the interior of the Karma takes things to another level. It is a very futuristic look.

The roof also includes solar panels (this is the third car recently I’ve heard of to include solar panels in its roof, the Lotus Eco Elise and Toyota Prius being the other two), though how much power they provide is unclear. The Fisker website says that the energy from the panels will be used to help charge the battery, and provide cooling for the interior cabin. Fisker will optionally provide a solar charging system for your house allowing you to generate electricity at home during the day to recharge your Karma with at night.

Plugin Hybrids

Fisker is not the only plugin hybrid electric vehicle on the way; Toyota’s next generation Prius will also be a plugin hybrid (and current generation cars can also be converted). There are some differences in the technologies being used though since the Karma always uses its electric motor for propulsion - the gasoline engine is only used to generate electricity when needed. On the other hand, the Prius uses both the electric motor and the gasoline one for propulsion, switching between them based on driving conditions.

Rival Tesla Motors also has a luxury sedan planned to follow its fun roadster, but it is sticking with pure electric as far as I can tell from the limited information the company has made available about their second vehicle.

Tags: fisker, hybrid, karma, phev, plugin hybrid

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