New cars: 2012 Fisker Karma

Motor Trend

The Fisker Karma is “a genuinely unique proposition”—a plug-in-rechargeable, gas-electric hybrid with a “jaw-slackening design manifesto.” It can travel 50 miles as an electric vehicle and another 250 miles on gasoline, and a solar-cell roof extends its annual cost-free range up to 200 miles. Weighing a hefty 4,100 pounds, it doesn’t have much “sizzle” in fuel-saving Stealth mode, but in Sport mode this EV “gets genuinely frisky”—and still delivers an estimated 67 mpg.

Automobile

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Fisker, an automotive start-up based in California, has done what Detroit has been incapable of—“innovate from the ground up.” And when this brilliant sports sedan hits showrooms in April, “the luxury-car market will have been changed forever.”

Car and Driver

The Karma delivers “sexy design stirred with a heap of sustainability.” Two rear-axle-mounted electric generators provide propulsion, supplemented by a 260-hp gas engine sourced from General Motors. The four-door exterior is stunning, and the four-seat interior is “elegantly tailored” with “lovely custom touches.” By any standard, this is “a beautiful, luxurious machine.” You should count it as a bonus that the Fisker Karma also “goes easy on the guilt.”