Fisker Automotive founder Henrik Fisker with his plug-in hybrid, the $87,900 Karma.
With sales of the new Karma battery car unofficially underway, California battery-car start Fisker Automotive will roll out an additional variant of the costly commuter car at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show.
The sleek combination of a sports car and a plug-in hybrid commuter car is initially being offered in hardtop form, with a convertible version soon to be added to the line. A third body style, which sources say could be “loosely described” as a crossover vehicle, will follow.
“It is a new variant and we will be showing it at Frankfurt,” Fisker spokesman Roger Ormischer confirmed to TheDetroitBureau.com, though he declined to provide more specific details beyond noting, “We will be putting it on sale next year.”
Fisker, in fact, has a very aggressive product development program underway. It is also in the late stages of development with “Project Nina,” codename for a second, more mainstream product line – which is expected to cost about half as much as the Karma, which runs anywhere from $95,900 to $108,900.
Plans call for Fisker to sell at least three to four times more of the smaller vehicle than for the Karma. Production for the sports/commuter car is just ramping up at a factory in Finland, but should reach its ongoing rate of about 300 a week before the end of 2011. Fisker expects to sell somewhere between 12,000 and 14,000 of the various Karma variants next year. The company believes about 40% of that demand will come from Europe.
While the first two models will share the Karma name, the third variant will likely go with a different badge, a well-placed source told TheDetroitBureau.com.
Unlike the other high-profile California start-up, Tesla Motors, Fisker has opted for an extended-range electric vehicle – more commonly called a plug-in hybrid – rather than a pure electric vehicle. That will allow owners to avoid the problems of limited battery range. Nonetheless, Fisker officials tend to describe the vehicle as a luxury commuter car.
(Tesla talking billion-dollar deal with Toyota. Click Here for that story.)
Officially, automakers are not allowed to begin selling a new car until it gets a formal go-ahead from the EPA, which provides the numbers posted on a vehicle’s window sticker. So, Fisker has had to tread lightly, noting it has so far delivered the first three Karmas but not actually sold them.
The first recipient was actor Leonardo Di Caprio, a green car fan who garnered a lot of attention for Toyota, some years back, when he drove the then-new Prius to the Oscars. Second in line was Ray Lane, managing director of the huge California venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, with former Sec. of State Colin Powell driving off with car number 3. Still waiting in line is enviro-politician Al Gore.