CompleteCar

Fisker goes into production

New Porsche Panamera rival could be here in 2012.

Finland is not noted for its car production, but the Fisker Karma is not your average car. This hybrid-powered rival to the Porsche Panamera has just entered production at the Valmet factory, which also happens to build cars for Porsche.

The Karma uses a 260hp 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine, but not to directly drive the wheels. Instead, the petrol motor is used as a generator to charge the lithium-ion batteries, which send power to twin electric motors, one for each rear wheel.

Together, the electric motors produce 410hp to help the Karma from 0-100km/h in 5.9 seconds. Top speed is 200km/h, but more importantly the Fisker has a range of 480 kilometres between fuel fills or plug-in recharges for the battery pack.

Aimed at Porsche Panamera and Mercedes-Benz CLS buyers, the Fisker Karma goes on sale in some markets later this year, though there have been no announcements about Irish sales as yet.

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Published on March 24, 2011