California’s Fisker Automotive has confirmed today that its upcoming Karma plug-in hybrid will be shown for the first time in full production trim at next month’s Detroit Auto Show. With only minor design enhancements made to the exterior of the original concept, the production Karma, seen here for the first time, retains the extreme proportions and sculptured look of the show car.

“We are very excited to be bringing the Fisker Karma back to NAIAS,” said Fisker Automotive CEO Henrik Fisker. “In the year since we debuted the Karma, the reception we’ve received has been tremendous. I’m proud to announce at this time that we are already sold out on the car until mid-2010.” With a base price of $87,900, the environmentally friendly luxury saloon is scheduled to begin delivery in November next year.
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Fisker has announced their new plug-in hybrid sedan called the Karma will use GM’s 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder which produces 260 horsepower. The engine will be used to generate electricity for the batteries after the hybrid has been driven past its 50 mile electric-only range. GM currently uses the engine in the Pontiac Solstice GXP and the Saturn Sky Red Line.

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Even mighty Toyota isn’t immune to the downturn in sales in the United States due to the horrible current economic climate and credit crisis. Revenue is down nearly 70 percent for the Japanese giant, a situation that it is anything but familiar with. So, Toyota has created a team headed by its President Katsuaki Watanabe that will focus on ways to spend less money. Expect the automaker to extend incentives to more of its fuel efficient models, not just full-size pickup trucks and SUVs, and move quickly to bring more fuel-saving models to market as quickly as possible, especially new hybrids.

If Toyota plans to spend less money overall but more on hybrid development, expect to see its larger vehicles be affected the most by the budget cuts. Models that aren’t segment leaders when it comes to fuel efficiency are likely to wait a bit longer for model refreshes as more hybrids are rolled out instead. It should be noted that this is exactly the strategy that General Motors is taking, except that GM is extremely close to running completely out of money while Toyota has got plenty in reserve. GM’s continued life depends on its fuel-savers while Toyota’s motive is continued profitability, making it painfully obvious that The General should have gotten a much earlier start on its hybrids and EVs.

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Mercedes-Benz is throwing its hat into the world of hybrids and the German automaker has made a bold promise that one in five of their cars sold will be a hybrid by 2015. Mercedes plans to officially introduce its first gas-electric luxury sedan, the S400 BlueHybrid, to Europe in June of 2009 and to the U.S. about a year from now. The S400 hybrid will use a lithium-ion battery and will get close to 30-mpg. This will be the first of seven hybrid models that Mercedes-Benz plans to offer by 2015. The s400 hybrid is expected to be priced arfound $100,000 and features a 279-HP 3.5 liter V6 gas engine combined with a small electric motor powered by a lithium ion battery. Reports say that the car will have the power of a V8 (zero to 60 in 7.3 seconds) with the fuel economy of a four cylinder.

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California may just pass Maryland as the first State to require hybrid and electric cars to have a minimum sound level. While the East Coast state has created a task force to study the issue, the Senate in the far-left State has just now approved a bill which would establish its own committee for the same purpose. The bill will now be passed on to The Governator, Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger himself, who has apparently not taken a stance as of yet on the politically-charged issue. Although Cali is just the third-largest State by land area, it is the most populous and has a huge collection of hybrids and electric vehicles due to its strict emissions requirements, and we all know how important California’s auto legislation is for setting the stage across the country.

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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.

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Beyond hybrid technology going mainstream in high volume passenger cars, talk is spilling over into the arena of high performance cars. With recent ventures such as Gumpert’s Apollo Hybrid Nürburgring racer, an assortment of specialty manufacturers and even motorsports granddaddy, Formula One, talking about it, the latest admission comes from Ferrari’s President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo in an interview with German mag Welt am Sonntag by stating the world famous sports car maker will have a hybrid powered vehicle ready for the market around 2015.

In parallel with the research and development going on with Formula One’s Kinetic Energy Recycling System (KERS), which is an brake energy regeneration system, the work being done will influence the development of a new Ferrari that uses an alternative energy source.

Despite a probable backlash from Ferrari purists, this isn’t the first time Ferrari has looked towards greener pastures. In the beginning of 2008 Ferrari debuted the E85 powered F430 Spider Bio Fuel Concept in Detroit with the announcement that their goal is to reduce emissions by 40% by 2012.

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