Fisker's Karma Plug-In Hybrid to Be Made in Finland | Autopia from Wired.com

Fisker's Karma Plug-In Hybrid to Be Made in Finland | Autopia from Wired.com: "Fisker's Karma Plug-In Hybrid to Be Made in Finland
By Chuck Squatriglia EmailJuly 15, 2008 | 1:29:01 PMCategories: Hybrids, Plug-In Hybrids

Fisker_karma

Fisker's Karma Plug-In Hybrid to Be Made in Finland
By Chuck Squatriglia EmailJuly 15, 2008 | 1:29:01 PMCategories: Hybrids, Plug-In Hybrids

Fisker_karma

The Finnish firm that builds the Porsche Cayman and Boxer will build the $80,000 Karma plug-in hybrid that Fisker Automotive promises to start putting in driveways within 18 months.

Valmet Automotive has built 1 million cars in its 38-year history, most of them for Saab, and Henrik Fisker says the company's experience with premium cars will ensure his four-door sedan is built the highest standards while meeting his aggressive production timeline.

"Valmet offers us the quality and speed necessary to meet our production goals, and given that more than half of Fisker Automotive's sales are expected to be outside of North America, Valmet represents an ideal international foothold," Fisker says.

OK, so he's got someone to build the car. But has he got a car to build?

The most anyone's seen of the car is a sweet prototype at the Detroit auto show, a few pics offered by publicists and a YouTube video. But Fisker tells Wired.com he's on track to deliver "about 100 cars" by the end of 2009. That's an aggressive timeline, but Fisker says he's got three prototypes under development and "will be doing final crash testing and certification during the next 12 months."

He won't discuss what's under the hood, citing his legal fight with Tesla Motors over the work he did - or, as Tesla would argue, didn't do - designing Tesla's forthcoming electric four-door sedan. But he's got Quantum Technologies designing the hybrid drivetrain and says he's lining up a manufacturer to provide major components and an internal combustion engine. He expects to unveil a production-ready model early next year.

"It's a fast timeline," he says of the car's development schedule. "But the total timeline is 2.5 years. It's not that unusual. The only way we have a chance is to be faster and better than the big automakers. If we try to do what Toyota does, we don't have a chance."

Auto industry experts and EV advocates tell us Fisker's deal with Valmet increase his odds of success, but they say he's still got several high hurdles to clear getting the Karma crash-tested and certified in so little time. The challenge, they say, isn't building one electric vehicle. It's building a lot of them.

Photo by Fisker Automotive.