German Car Zone

It's been a scant 12 months since Henrik Fisker debuted the curvaceous Karma concept that bears his name, and today the former Jaguar designer returned to Detroit with a very similar looking production model and a business plan.

It's been a busy year for the upstart luxury manufacturer, and in that time, a development center has been built and staffed in nearby Pontiac, Michigan, and the Karma has received an all-new interior ("with eco-friendly materials and absolutely no black plastic buttons") that includes a new haptic touch-control system for the driver.

The aluminum spaceframe four-door is a plug-in hybrid vehicle that Fisker says will reach 60 miles-per-hour in 5.8 seconds and be able to cruise comfortably at 125 miles-per-hour. Power gets to the 22-inch wheels via a pair of 201 horsepower electric motors backed by a lithium-ion battery pack. A generator is affixed to a 260-horsepower version of General Motors' 2.0-liter Ecotec engine to provide extended-range capability.

Fisker says his company expects to sign 40 dealers up by year's end, and notes that he already has 22 on-board. Furthermore, Fisker says he expects production to ramp up to 15,000 units per year, and 1,300 units have already be pre-sold to early adopters. The asking price for the Karma is a reasonable-sounding $87,900, a number that has us wondering how Fisker and Co. intends to make money considering the modest volume projections and cost-intensive R&D.

Lovely