Fuel-Efficient-Vehicles.org

The Plug-in Karma, by Fisker gets $500 milion loan

travel 50 miles on Lith-Ion batteries alone, and an additional 250 mi while recharging; 0 to 60 in 6 sec.; & top speed over 125 mph; 1600 on order
updated 6-23-2010

The Karma, developed by American automaker Fisker Automotive, can travel 50 miles emission-free on a single charge of its Lithium-ion battery, and an additional 400km (250mi) on a range extending generator turned by an efficient four cylinder gas engine. Economy is 100 mi. / gal. and emissions of just 83g/km CO2 - better than today’s best hybrids. Still, the Karma can reach 100km/h (62mph) in about 6 seconds and exceed 200km/h (125mph).

US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Confirms FISKER'S $528.7M LOAN

The Department of Energy announced today the closing of a $528.7 million loan with Fisker Automotive for the development and production of two lines of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). The loan will support the Karma, a full-size, four-door sports sedan, and a line of family oriented models being developed under the company’s Project NINA program. Download entire DOE press release below.

FISKER AUTOMOTIVE SECURES ACCESS TO $115M FOR PLUG-IN HYBRIDS

01.15.2010
Fisker Automotive has secured access to an additional $115.3 million in private equity funding to develop plug-in hybrid cars. This funding is necessary for Fisker to access a $528.7 million U.S. Department of Energy conditional loan that will, in part,help speed completion of the Fisker Karma, the company’s first plug-in hybrid. Starting at $87,900 the Karma paves the way for development of lower-cost plug-in hybrid technology for a second, family-oriented car code named Project NINA. Project NINA is expected to be built in Wilmington, Delaware at a former General Motors assembly plant starting in 2012. "Raising $115 million in these times speaks volumes about the value of our business model and the vast potential of plug-in hybrids," said Henrik Fisker, CEO.

FISKER AUTOMOTIVE SIGNS BATTERY SUPPLY AGREEMENT WITH A123 SYSTEMS

01.14.2010
Fisker Automotive has entered a battery supply agreement with A123 Systems. The Massachusetts-based company will provide lithium-ion batteries for the Karma plug-in hybrid. Chief Executive Officer Henrik Fisker said, "Fisker Automotive selected A123 because of the company’s ability to meet our performance needs and rapidly scale to our production volume. Fisker is committed to developing environmentally friendly cars that don’t sacrifice style or performance. A123’s technology will ensure the Karma delivers." In electric-only "Stealth" mode, the Karma -- using only A123’s batteries -- will have a 50-mile (80km) range, seven-second 0-60 (0-100km/h) time and 95mph (153 km/h) top speed. In hybrid "Sport" mode, the Karma will reach 60 (100km/h) in about 6 seconds, 125mph (201km/h), and can achieve 100mpg.

DANISH CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK TO TAKE FISKER KARMA PLUG-IN TO UN CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE

12.14.2009
The Crown Prince of Denmark, HRH Frederik, will tomorrow travel to the COP15 UN Climate Conference events in Copenhagen in the Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid car. HRH Frederik will visit at 4 pm Hopenhagen event at Raadhuspladsen after which he will leave in the Fisker Karma at 5 pm to the Bella Center.

FISKER ANNOUNCES KARMA PRODUCTION SCHEDULE: 3rd Q 2010

12.03.2009
Fisker Automotive has Secured more than 1,500 customer deposits, and In third quarter 2010, will begin delivering Karma plug-in hybrids to appointed retailers and distributors worldwide, less than 36 months after the concept car first appeared at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in 2008.

Fisker Automotive Partners with Major European Auto Retail Group

11.04.2009
Fisker Automotive will partner with the Emil Frey Group, one of Europe’s most established and prestigious auto groups, to import, market and service its premium plug-in hybrid cars on the continent. The Emil Frey Group (www.emilfrey.ch) owns and operates more than 100 retail centers in six countries and handles multiple premium brands. Locations in Switzerland, Germany, France, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland will provide Fisker with a strong operational base in Europe.

Fisker Automotive Announces Plan to Buy U.S. Assembly Plant

10.27.2009
Fisker Automotive has selected the Wilmington Assembly plant in Wilmington Delaware to build affordable plug-in hybrid cars. Fisker executives made the announcement inside the dormant facility today, joined by Vice President Joe Biden, Delaware Governor Jack Markell and other state officials. The plant will support Fisker Automotive’s Project NINA, the development and build of an affordable, family-oriented plug-in hybrid sedan costing about $39,900 after federal tax credits. Production is scheduled to begin in late 2012 and create 2000 factory jobs and more than 3000 vendor/supplier jobs when production reaches full capacity in 2014.

FISKER AUTOMOTIVE AWARDED $528M FROM US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

09.22.2009
Fisker Automotive has been approved by the Department of Energy for a conditional loan of more than half a billion dollars to create affordable, fuel-efficient plug-in hybrid electric cars. A majority of the more than $528 million in low-interest funds will go toward Project NINA, which will see the design, engineering and assembly of Fisker Automotive’s next-generation plug-in hybrids, starting at about $39,900 after tax credits. The remainder will help finalize development of the Fisker Karma, the technology leading plug-in hybrid that will enable the company to develop such lower cost models. Fisker Automotive expects to create or save at least 5,000 US jobs among auto suppliers and thousands more to manufacture a plug-in hybrid in the U.S. Project NINA – inspired by the ship belonging to explorer Christopher Columbus -- is symbolic of the automobile industry’s transition from old world to new. By 2012 Fisker Automotive is expected to launch a family oriented, user friendly plug-in hybrid featuring cutting edge technology, radical styling and world-class quality. Global sales are predicted to exceed 100,000 units annually. A significant percentage will be exported, helping to balance the US trade deficit.

The Next Detroit, electric-hybrid car co's in the USA

Forbes Magazine dated June 08, 2009, by Joann Muller, 05-20-2009
Automakers' Gold Rush
Tesla, Fisker,
Bright Automotive,
Carbon Motors,
Miles Electric Vehicles.

Henrik Fisker is imagining a new kind of American car company. Almost everything is outsourced -- engineering, components, the electric power train, manufacturing. Only design and marketing remain in-house. "It's a great time to launch a new car company like ours," he says, speaking at April's New York Auto Show, which was drowning in obituaries for the car business. "We have a different business model."

Handsome, blond and draped in Armani, the 45-year-old Fisker, a celebrated car designer, is chief executive of Fisker Automotive, headquartered 1,970 miles away from Detroit in Irvine, Calif. His two-year-old company, backed by not quite $200 million in venture capital from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Palo Alto Investors and the Qatar Investment Authority, begins production in November of the 100mpg Fisker Karma, an $88,000 plug-in hybrid sports sedan. Fisker expects to sell 15,000 Karmas a year, including a convertible due in 2011. He has presold 1,300 so far.

But he hopes to be more than just another gadget salesman for the Segway set. His audacious goal: branch out to higher-volume models and sell 100,000 vehicles a year worldwide. That's more than Audi, Volvo or Mitsubishi now sell annually in the U.S. He expects sales to hit $3.5 billion once the next model, a $50,000 plug-in, debuts in three to five years. "America has never been more ready for a new American car company," says the Danish-born designer.

The implosion of General Motors ( GM - news - people ) and Chrysler has sparked a flurry of innovators like Fisker. They are reminiscent of the entrepreneurs in the car industry's early days, when Henry Ford, Ransom E. Olds, Henry Studebaker and many now forgotten dreamers competed for technological leadership with steam-, electricity- and gasoline-powered cars. By the early 1910s the internal combustion engine won out. Amazingly, the means of propulsion--indeed the car business itself--has changed little since then.

Now there's a determined shift, backed by politicians, toward a greener, more cost-efficient car industry. Washington is dangling $25 billion in incentives to manufacturers to build vehicles that burn little or no gasoline, drawing more than 100 applications. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler want to take $21 billion of that to retool existing factories. But GM and Chrysler won't qualify unless they're deemed viable, which is still in doubt. Meanwhile, a flood of startups, including Fisker, are brandishing advanced technologies like hybrids, plug-ins and pure electrics to vie for attention, customers and funding.

The best known is Tesla Motors, whose $101,000 electric roadster is already on sale. It's taking orders for a $50,000 electric sedan due in 2011. Others with names like Bright Automotive, Carbon Motors and Miles Electric Vehicles are also in the game. Local Motors has the most unorthodox approach. It plans a series of 25 to 50 microfactories, each building only 2,000 vehicles a year. People submit their car designs via the Internet, where winners are selected by enthusiasts American Idol-like.

History is littered with the failed visions of automobile impresarios like Preston Tucker, John DeLorean and Malcolm Bricklin. Henrik Fisker figures his fate will be different because he has more than just a new design or variety of propulsion in play. He wants to change the very definition of an American car company, taking his inspiration from firms such as Apple ( AAPL - news - people ) and Nike ( NKE - news - people ), which focus on branding and design, not running factories. Indeed, if the Big Three could start over, without the baggage of high labor costs and excess brands, they might create a car company that looks a lot like Fisker Automotive.

"I envy Henrik Fisker his car company," says GM's retiring vice chairman, Robert A. Lutz, the flamboyant Motowner behind Chrysler's Dodge Viper and General Motors' Chevrolet Volt. "He's well financed. He's got thousands of orders. His timing is absolutely right."

05-10-2008
"The message from the auto executives was - something needed to be done or we were going to see layoffs in the coming weeks," said Michigan Congressman Joe Knollenberg. "They were legitimately pretty scared." The inclusion of the plug-in hybrid tax credit is a bonus that could help fuel recovery in the next several years. General Motors spokesman Greg Martin said of the credit, "consumer tax incentives are traditionally one of the most effective ways to accelerate early adoption of energy-saving technology," reports The Detroit News.

The new tax credits for plug-in vehicles will range from between $2,500 to $7,500, with factors such as battery capacity determining how much owners would receive. Cars like the Chevrolet Volt, due in late 2010, would be eligible for the maximum credit of $7,500. The total cost of the program over the next ten years is estimated at $1 billion - a significant sum of money, but a drop in the bucket next to the $700 billion bill it's a part of.

To meet the tax incentive's standards, a plug-in vehicle must have a battery with a minimum capacity of 4kWh, though an additional $200 of tax credit is added for every kilowatt-hour thereafter, which is how the Volt gets to the maximum $7,500 limit with its 16kWh battery.

Unlike the tax credit before it for traditional hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius, which phases out for the customers of any company that sells 60,000 qualifying vehicles, the latest bill includes a measure that covers the first 250,000 vehicles sold.

Motor Trend:
Henrik Fisker

It would be easy to envy Henrik Fisker. The affable Dane is movie-star handsome and has a great family. He's lived and worked in Germany, London, and some of the hotter spots in Southern California. While at BMW, he designed a car so beautiful--the retromodern, M5-powered Z8 roadster--it starred in the James Bond film, "The World Is Not Enough," with Pierce Brosnan. His most recent hands-on design project is the upcoming Aston Martin AM V8 Vantage, which could easily become 007's next missile-firing ride. While at Ford, he held not one, but two of the most desirable automotive design positions in the world: director of Ford's Global Advanced Design Studio and director of design for Aston Martin. His legend was secured, his future bright, his salary huge. And, on January 17, 2005, he pitched it all away--to design and build cars under his own name.

What drives this modern-day scribbler on the roof?

"Passion. I remember, as a kid, riding in the back of my dad's old Saab 95 in Denmark. We were on the highway, and suddenly this silver Maserati Bora came upon us, then passed. At the time, to me, this car looked like a spaceship. I remember this tingly feeling I had, these goosebumps. That was it; that was the moment. I was into cars from then on."

Meet America's newest car company: Fisker Coachbuild, LLC, based in Newport Beach, California. Fisker, partner Bernhard Koehler, and a dozen private investors have formed the company to build high-end limited-edition cars for those who also have passion, taste -- and an extra $200,000 to $250,000 ["Cool it!" Motor trend, $80,000 is on the tag].