Deliveries of the 2012 Fisker began late in 2011 after many delays. The car wins praise for its looks and pioneering technology, though there’s no directly comparable model offered by any other maker. It competes both with similarly sized German prestige sedans—like the BMW 5 SERIES and the Audi A6 (and their upcoming hybrid variants)—but also with the 2012 Tesla Model S, if that all-electric sedan arrives in the summer of 2012 as planned.
The Fisker Karma sedan is priced at $106,000, with most buyers eligible for a $7,500 credit on their Federal income tax returns. Additional body styles using the Karma platform, including a “shooting brake” sports wagon model called the Surf and a two-door model with a retractable hardtop, the Karma S or Sunset, are planned as follow-on models
Drivers can select one of two modes: “Stealth” is the all-electric mode, up to the capacity of the battery pack, while “Sport” switches on the engine to deliver more power and better performance. A pair of “Hill” modes increases the regenerative braking, allowing the Karma to be driven “on one pedal” more often, similar to the pioneering TESIA ROADSTER, the first modern electric-drive car.