A pollution free sports car designed by Henrik Fisker
Denmark is one of the most expensive countries to buy a privately owned vehicle due to taxes and registration fees. On the other hand for export purposes Denmark is amongst the most competitive. Also, there is no real tradition of car production and design in Denmark with the exception of Opel, which had an assembly plant that closed back in 1971. Therefore it is quite remarkable that one of the most influential car designers worldwide at the moment is Danish.
Henrik Fisker, who has a resume most people can only dream of, has had the rare opportunity to act as chief designer for not less than three world leading car companies: BMW, Aston Martin and Ford. During his time working with Aston Martin he designed two of the most popular cars in the company’s recent history, the DB9 and the Vantage V8. Henrik Fisker also developed the BMW Z8, a car immortalized by agent 007, alias Pierce Brosnan, who was lucky enough to get behind the wheel of this beauty in the Bond movie, “The World is not Enough.” To refresh your memory this is the one where Bond’s car ends up being cut right through with a chain saw!
Henrik Fisker moved to southern California in 2005 to start up his own company, Fisker Coachbuild, where he worked in collaboration with his German business partner Bernhard Koehler. The company found a niche to custom-build BMW and Mercedes models, mainly on request from exclusive customers with the pocket for out of this world perfection in car design. The duo also launched two new car models: Latigo and Tramonto.
Now Henrik Fisker, still only in his mid 40s, is going radically new ways and will soon launch an ultra-environmentally friendly car, spiritually named “Karma.” It has always been Fisker’s ambition to start his own car production from scratch and now his childhood dream will come true. The new eco-friendly car looks nothing like existing electric cars on the world market. Karma’s design is refreshingly luxurious and sporty. The eco-friendly car is Henrik’s first solo production under the name “Fisker Automotive.”
The innovative part is that Karma is a so-called plug-in hybrid car. The technology used by Fisker to produce Karma is totally new and untried. This sleek, seductive beauty is designed with a 1.3 meter high sporty body and a motor that runs on lithium/ion batteries like the ones used in computers and mobile phones. To date only Karma and Tesla, another electric sports car, is using lithium/ion batteries on such a large scale. This is really the critical breakthrough. It is well known that lithium/ion batteries have great capacity and can be recharged quickly, but their use in applications as big as in a car could be somewhat unstable.
This is likely to be Henrik Fisker’s biggest obstacle to overcome before Karma is launched at the end of 2009. Fisker is convinced that about15,000 cars will be sold in its first year, mainly in the U.S. where the car is manufactured. The price will be approximately $80,000 in the U.S. whereas the Danes, due to sky high taxes on vehicles, will likely pay three times as much.
With Karma, Fisker promises high speeds in contrast to many existing electric cars on the market. Reaching 100km/h within six seconds Karma will have a top speed of 200km/h! If the batteries in Karma lose their spark, a four cylinder internal combustion engine will automatically recharge the batteries. Loaded batteries and a full tank promise a range of 700 km with very low CO2 emissions equivalent to 28 km a liter.
Ideally it should not be necessary to use petrol at all for Karma over short distances. Henrik Fisker estimates that an 80 kilometer drive fuelled only by battery power, will meet 60 percent of the requirements of the average driver. Karma will largely deliver pollution-free motoring. There is no doubt that Henrik Fisker lives by the rule that “nothing is impossible.” To the rest of us it is comforting to know that the car industry is seriously working on many levels towards a greener environment.
Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.
August 2008