Bad Carma

PeeDee and I saw this while walked to lunch in the posh Laurel Heights. Neither of us had seen or heard of this car or car company before, but it certainly looked cool and ludicrously expensive. The Luxury Motors of Marin sticker supported that assumption. I couldn't really tell if it were electric or not—it had the vibe of a Tesla and a solar paneled roof, but it also had what appeared to be a gas tank panel.




It turns out to be a Fisker Karma, one of the first luxury hybrids. And comes with a $115,000 price tag.


Although it has some fire, battery and recall issues, it still won Luxury Car of the Year in 2011 from Top Gear Magazine.

From the Wikipedia entry:

The Fisker Karma is a plug-in hybrid luxury sports sedan produced by Fisker Automotive and manufactured at Valmet Automotive in Finland.^[5] The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rated the Karma's combined city/highway fuel economy at 52 mpg_-US (4.5 L/100 km; 62 mpg_-imp) equivalent (MPG-e) in all-electric mode, and at 20 mpg_-US (12 L/100 km; 24 mpg_-imp) in gasoline-only mode. EPA's official all-electric range is 32 mi (51 km).^[3][6] Due to the very small cabin interior volume, the EPA rated the Fisker Karma as a subcompact.^[7]

After missing its initial late 2009 launch, and after the launch was rescheduled several times, the first deliveries took place in the U.S. in late July 2011,^[8][9][10] and deliveries to retail customers began in November 2011.^[6] Since December 2011 pricing in the U.S. starts at US$102,000 for the basic model, and US$116,000 for the top model.^[11] Fisker reported that around 2,000 units have been delivered in the U.S. and Europe by October 2012.^[12]