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Is the Karma an innovation?

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

One might file the following under "what were they thinking"?

Fisker Automotive, a California manufacturer of luxury electric vehicles, will receive more than $500 million in federal loans to develop a plug-in hybrid sports car with a sticker price of nearly $90,000 and a new plug-in hybrid vehicle to be built in the United States.

The Energy Department said Tuesday it would lend $528.7 million to Fisker from a $25 billion fund to develop fuel-efficient vehicles, making the Irvine, Calif., startup the fourth automaker to receive loans from the program. The government awarded $8 billion in loans to Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Tesla Motors Inc. in June to develop environmentally friendly cars.

"This investment will create thousands of new American jobs and is another critical step in making sure we are positioned to compete for the clean energy jobs of the future," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. He estimated it would save or create about 5,000 jobs.

(...)

The remaining $359.36 million in loans will be directed to Fisker's Project Nina, an effort by the automaker to develop a lower-cost, higher-volume plug-in hybrid car by late 2012. Fisker has said the next-generation plug-in will sell for $39,900 and be built in the United States with an annual production of about 100,000 vehicles.

(...)

Fisker has raised tens of millions of dollars from top venture capital firms such as Palo Alto Investors and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, of which former Vice President Al Gore is a partner. The company has pre-sold more than 1,500 Karmas and recruited a network of 45 dealers.

The company has promoted the Karma as an example of green mobility. The vehicle's average fuel economy can exceed 100 miles per gallon and company officials say the Karma could use as little as one tank of gas per year if driven fewer than 50 miles per day and fully charged overnight.

As to technology advance:

One year after the debut of the Fisker Karma concept, the company revealed the 2011 Fisker Karma S. It's based on the same plug-in hybrid technology and Q-Drive combination of gasoline engine and dual electric motors powered by lithium-ion batteries.

Full post as published by IPBiz on September 23, 2009 (boomark / email).