The Red, White, and Green

When I asked Fuel director Josh Tickell at the recent LA Get Off Oil Day what Angelenos could do to help the biggest gas guzzling city in the nation curb its crude consumption, his answer was simple: “Do not buy another car, do not trade in your car, do not take another car unless it has a plug on it.”

OK Josh, you’ve got it! Can I please have the new Fisker Karma?

Unless you’ve been living off the grid for the past three years, you’ve no doubt by now caught a glimpse of the Tesla Roadster, the eco-extravagant all-electric sports car that retails for about the price of a two-bedroom home in Phoenix. Well, the new made-in-California Karma is the first luxury plug-in hybrid electric vehicle — packing the same zero-emissions punch of the Tesla (or any all-electric car, for that matter), but with the driving range of a conventional car.

Check out this green monster:

Boasting 100 mpg (that’s about 2 cents a mile FYI; though at $87,900 retail it could take a while to realize those savings), the Karma has a total range of 300 miles, an all-electric range of 50 miles, and can be fully charged in as little as six hours from any 110-, 220-, or 240-volt outlet. Oh, and did I mention it can go from 0 to 60 mph in 5.9 seconds?

It’s also loaded with sustainable design features, including recyclable aluminum wheels, a solar panel roof, wood trim sourced from reclaimed California forest fire timber, and an animal-free interior option that replaces leather with bamboo viscose.

Word on the street is that LACarGuy, which will be opening the first Fisker dealership in Los Angeles in early 2011, will also be the first automotive dealer in the United States to offer Level 2 SAE J-1772 electric vehicle charging stations to the public at all of the LACarGuy locations. Good news for those of us who will probably be pulling up in a Leaf and not a Karma.

–Jennifer Grayson

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