Fisker Karma

The Fisker Karma is a luxury sedan of the automobile manufacturer Fisker Automotive, powered by two 150 kW electric motors ( together 408 hp ), which in Sport mode, to improve performance, and to extend the battery range of 81 kilometers around 400 km a generator current can zuliefern that of a 156 kW ( 212 bhp) petrol engine, a 2-liter General Motors Ecotec engine is driven.

Consumption in stealth mode (pure battery mode) is on the first 81 km at 0 liters. The fuel consumption is 2.2 l/100 km. In sport mode (408 hp, 5.9 seconds to 100 km / h) using the Range Extender (generator) is the real consumption 10-12 liters per 100 km.

The car is built since June 2011 from a contract manufacturer Valmet in Finland, the Boxster and Cayman models produced even on behalf of Porsche.

The Fisker Karma can run as a pure electric car ( provided by the manufacturer stealth mode ) and then has a range of 81 km, a top speed of 153 km / h and an acceleration of 7.9 s from 0 to 100 km / h

If the Sport mode is selected, in which the 4-cylinder petrol engine also delivers a 175 kW generator power for the two electric motors, the speed increases to 200 km / h and acceleration to 5.9 s from 0 to 100 km / h The car in this form is a hybrid car, namely a plug -in hybrid.

The body shape was designed by the Danish designer Henrik Fisker, who formerly worked as a designer for BMW, engineers, a subsidiary of Ford, Aston Martin and with the German engineer Bernhard Koehler, developers and custom company Fisker Coach Build LLC founded, together with Quantum Technologies, the manufacturer Fisker Automotive brought to life.

The nearly five feet long and six feet wide skeleton body (space frame ) is made of aluminum, which is supplied by Norsk Hydro.

Due to economic difficulties of the production Fisker is currently set.

Electric motors

The two electric motors with 150 kW with a total torque of 1330 Newton meters drive to the rear axle.

Brakes

Is delayed 2.5 t ( Ready incl. battery) heavy vehicle during rapid braking of two front and two 4- piston Brembo brakes on the rear wheels 6 - piston Brembo brakes. In addition, the car recovers braking energy by using a portion of the kinetic energy is converted back into electrical energy (see regenerative braking ). Two delay stages can be selected.

Battery

The lithium- ion battery has a capacity of 20 kWh and is based on the iron phosphate technology of the U.S. battery maker A123 Systems, which is also a partner of Fisker Automotive. The battery allows European Standard in pure electric mode has a range of 81 km. It weighs 275 kg, and is housed in the center tunnel.

Special

In the roof of the car a curved 120 -watt solar panel is integrated, which provides under favorable conditions electricity per year for an additional 200 miles. The current thus obtained makes it possible, alternatively, to cool the car during downtime.

Name

The name of Karma is based on the corresponding Sanskrit word.

The term stealth mode for pure electric mode is inspired by the same military technology. The developer of the drive system and co-founder of Fisker Automotive, Quantum Technologies, will still result from defense contracts and is currently developing for the U.S. Department of Defense a stealth vehicle called Aggressor Alternative Mobility Vehicle ( AMV ).

Competition and driving

Henrik Fisker himself gave as a benchmark to the BMW 7 Series and the Porsche Panamera.

The Fisker Karma could be attributed to the class of Gran Turismo sedans, the dynamic sports sedan cars that are owned by the acceleration and speed forth to the class of sports car, but are built more comfortable.

The driving characteristics describes the magazine auto motor und sport as follows: Its balanced weight, low center of gravity and the direct, message joyful steering help the Fisker Karma is actually a compelling agility with a lot of fun potential. Here, the rear-wheel drive driving dynamics bought not by a bone- dry suspension. Despite the huge wheels ( 22 inches) he convinced Comfortable.

Criticism

Be criticized in some reports, the sounds of the selectable internal combustion engine and the processing of the first models (production number < 500). Also, the visibility and functionality of the Command Center is criticized in the 2012 model year, including the fact integrated navigation system.

Other body styles

In January 2009, Fisker Automotive presented the project Fisker Karma S Sunset, a convertible with hardtop based on the Fisker Karma, before at the North American International Auto Show. At the IAA 2011, an estate version of karma under the name Surf was presented. So far, however, neither of the two variants for end-users is available.

Miscellaneous

Ashton Kutcher runs in the ninth season of the sitcom Two and a half men as billionaire Walden Schmidt a Fisker Karma.