Thursday, November 4, 2010

New EV, the Nina to be produced in California

Fisker Karma (© Robert J. Pennington)

The Fisker Karma (shown here) is is the glamor boy of the coming electric vehicles, and it's a plug-in hybrid.

What's that, you say?

Think of a Toyota Prius, but with a larger battery pack and the ability to recharge from a wall socket. Other plug-in hybrids are coming from Ford and Toyota. The Karma is as sexy as the Tesla Roadster, but with four doors and a gas engine for longer trips. Journalists haven't actually driven the Karma yet, but it's supposed to have 50 miles of all-electric range and a zero to 60 time of 5.8 seconds.

As with the Tesla, you pay for that rip-roaring ability: The Karma (which has a more expensive convertible version) will sell for $87,900 when it reaches showrooms in September.

Fisker got a controversial $529 million Department of Energy loan to build its next-generation car, the Nina, and recently announced that it is consolidating all of its operations in California (and closing down in Pontiac, Michigan).

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