Along with the public unveiling of the production Karma plug-in hybrid sports sedan, Fisker will also takes the wraps off a new concept car at next month’s Detroit Auto Show. The concept is called Karma S, where S stands for Sunset - something that could point towards a convertible version of the Karma saloon. The California based company said that the Karma S will be powered by the Karma’s Q-DRIVE powertrain, developed in cooperation with Quantum Technologies exclusively for Fisker. The system offers a 50 mile range on a single charge to its Lithium-Ion battery pack, and an output of up to 408HP from the two electric motors. Fisker will announce more details about the Karma S at the company’s press conference on January 12, 2009.

Continued

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Big 3 may be laying off workers left, right and center, but at least one start up is moving into town to swoop up some skilled workers. That start-up is Fisker Automotive, the aspiring luxury-hybrid automaker headed up by noted designed Henrik Fisker. The new facility is based in a leased property in Pontiac, Michigan, in suburban Detroit, and will help Fisker’s engineers get the Karma, first shown in concept form at the last Detroit show and ambitiously gearing up for a production preview at the next one.

Continued

Popularity: 1% [?]

Fisker Automotive isn’t exactly on good terms with its client-turned-competitor Tesla. But as Engadget reports, Valmet Automotive now announcing its intention to manufacturer its Karma plug-in hybrid sedan in serious numbers in Finland—as many as 15,000 annually, with the first arriving in North America sometime in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Europeans will begin receiving their cars directly afterward, sometime in 2010. The article also said that Valmet was chosen to manufacture the car after an “extensive global search, with its location in Finland in particular working in its favor given that more than half of Fisker’s cars are expected to be sold outside of North America.” The car is still expected to cost $80,000, which splits the difference between Tesla’s current $100k roadster and its no-longer-secret $60,000 sedan project.

Popularity: 1% [?]

As production ramps up on the impossibly gorgeous Artega GT, parent company Paragon has announced that the compact sportscar will sell for €74,983 across the pond. The pricing makes it compelling competition for a well-equipped (and similarly proportioned) Porsche Cayman S. As previously reported, final assembly is scheduled to begin this summer at a rate of two per day, ramping up to 20 per week for a total production run of just 500 vehicles.

Among those will be a right-hand-drive model for the UK market, as Artega establishes a British dealer base. The vehicle initially unveiled as a concept in Geneva 2007 and in production form a year later is powered by a mid-mounted, Volkswagen-sourced 3.6-liter V6 coupled to a DSG transmission. 300 horsepower driving the rear wheels is all that’s needed to propel the Fisker-designed (think BMW Z8 and a handful of Aston Martins along with his own line of coach-built SLs and M6s and the Karma hybrid super-sedan) to 100 km/h (62 mph) in less than five seconds.

Popularity: 1% [?]