Fisker to Raid GM Parts Bin to get Karma Built

Another piece of the puzzle has fallen into place at Fisker Automotive, which says it will put a turbocharged GM engine under hood of the $80,000 Karma plug-in hybrid slated for production next year.

The announcement that General Motors will supply the engines Fisker needs gives the upstart automaker a steady supply of reliable engines while providing the General with a little eco-cachet and much-needed income. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but Henrik Fisker says he isn't at all nervous about whether GM will survive long enough to deliver the goods.

"This deal was of course initiated some time ago," Fisker told Wired.com by email from Europe. "We believe the USA still needs a large automotive industry and GM will be a part of that in some form."

Should the Karma see production, it will run a lot like the Chevrolet Volt, which is a big reason Fisker went with GM -- and may raid its parts bin for other components as well.

"Given General Motors' global leadership in the parts and accessories space (and) the fact that it is already engineering parts for an extended range electric vehicles ... it was clear that this was the right partner," Fisker said in a statement. "We are confident that this is the beginning of an important partnership between GM and Fisker Automotive in developing the most desirable fuel-efficient vehicles of the future."

The 260-horsepower direct-injection turbocharged engine slated for the Karma is the most powerful in GM's Ecotec lineup. It is used in the Chevrolet Cobalt SS, the Pontiac Solstice GXP and the Saturn Sky. Once installed in the Karma, the Ecotec engine will generate the electricity needed to keep the car going beyond the battery's 50-mile range. In other words, it will drive a generator that will charge the battery and keep the electric motor going.

Some have questioned why Fisker chose a 260-horsepower engine for the job when the the Chevrolet Volt, which will run in much the same way, features an engine that produces about 67 horsepower. Overkill, they call it. But Fisker says engine is perfectly suited for the Karma.

"A 260-horsepower four cylinder is not overkill when you want the performance of a 400-horsepower V8," Fisker told Wired.com. "The Karma electric drivetrain has 408 horsepower, so to keep the performance, acceleration and top speed of 125 mph you need a powerful generator. We are making a luxury performance green car, not just a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle that can barely get home when the battery is depleted. The Karma will have top performance in any mode."

There's still no word on how battery development is going, and time's getting short if Fisker is to meet his goal of putting "about 100" Karmas in driveways by the end of 2009 before ramping up to an annual run of 15,000 cars. All we've seen so far is a sexy prototype, a few fake spy shots and a video of a prototype tooling around a runway. Still, Fisker -- who's designed cars like the BMW Z8 and Aston Martin DB9 and so knows a thing or two about the auto industry -- has a few aces up his sleeve. He's got Quantum Technologies developing the hybrid drivetrain, he's lined up Edag Engineering and Magna Intier to help with the Karma's interior and the Finnish firm that builds the Porsche Boxster and Cayman has signed on to build the Karma once it's ready to go. And he tells us he's going back to GM for components like the air conditioning system.

Few of the industry experts and EV advocates we've talked to doubt Fisker will come through. But almost all of them say he's set an optimistic, if not unrealistic, deadline that will be tough to meet.

Photos by Fisker Automotive.

The 2.0-liter turbocharged General Motors "Ecotec" engine Fisker Automotive has lined up for the Karma produces 260 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque. It is used in the high-performance models of the Chevrolet Cobalt, Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky. Photo by GM.