Fisker Karma gets EPA certified: 52 mpge, 32-mile electric range, 20 mpg on gas

Sebastian Blanco — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:55:00 EST

Filed under: Hybrid, Sedan, Government/Legal, Fisker, Electric

Yikes. The EPA has finally released its official fuel economy rating for the Fisker Karma, and it's not high: just 52 MPGe, an all-electric range of 32 miles and 20 miles per gallon on gasoline when the battery runs dry. This is well below the numbers that Fisker reps were bandying about in past years: 67.2 mpge and an all-electric range of 50 miles.

American conservatives - who really have it out for plug-in hybrids that the federal government helped fund with loan guarantees - are already calling the Karma's numbers a "flop." It's kind of hard to say if that's the right word to use since luxury car buyers probably won't be turned off by these figures - 20 mpg is nothing surprising for the class - but we agree that the PHEV needed to be more efficient when running on gasoline to truly impress us on the green front. At least a 32-mile electric range isn't all that shabby, and company CEO and co-founder Henrik Fisker said he still thinks most drivers will beat the EPA estimate and be able to wring 50 electric miles out of their $95,900-plus cars.

Whatever they are, the numbers do contain some good news for Fisker. With EPA certification now in the bag, sales can officialy begin. Fisker said the first sales marked a "major milestone" and that his company "can deliver many more of these truly amazing automobiles to customers during the remainder of 2011 and for many years to come." The first 39 Karmas should be rolling out "now-ish" to dealers for use at demonstration vehicles and the first customer vehicles should arrive from Finland in about two weeks.

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Fisker announces fuel economy estimate for Karma - 67.2 mpg and CO2 emissions of just 83 g/km

Sebastian Blanco — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:29:00 EST

Filed under: Hybrid, Sedan, Fisker, Luxury

Fisker Karma - Click above for high-res image gallery

The miles per gallon rating of a vehicle that can get energy from an electrical outlet is a difficult thing to accurately calculate and get the public to accept. Just ask AFS Trinity, with their "150 mpg" SUVs, or GM with its 230 mpg number for the Chevy Volt. Still, it's valuable to have some sort of number to compare vehicles against one another, and Fisker Automotive has released the first such numbers for its Karma plug-in luxury hybrid: 3.5 liters per 100 kilometers (equivalent to 67.2 mpg U.S.) and CO2 emissions of just 83 grams per kilometer.

Fisker is basing these numbers on SAE methodology for measuring emissions for PHEVs. We're trying to confirm this with Fisker, but we think this means the J1711 methodology, about which you can read more here or in this PDF. (UPDATE: It's actually J2841) In any case, Fisker says that the Karma's CO2 emissions will be, on average, "less than that of today's cleanest production cars and 75 percent less than that of competing vehicles." If the company meets its ambitious goal of selling 15,000 Karmas a year starting when it goes on sale next year and then through 2016, they estimate that 248 million gallons of gasoline will be saved.

Gallery: Fisker Karma

[Source: Fisker]

Continue reading Fisker announces fuel economy estimate for Karma - 67.2 mpg and CO2 emissions of just 83 g/km

Fisker announces fuel economy estimate for Karma - 67.2 mpg and CO2 emissions of just 83 g/km originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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