Royalty Drives Fisker Karma Plug-In Hybrid, Journalists Not So Much

By John Voelcker

John Voelcker

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Fisker Karma at Laguna Seca

Denmark Crown Prince Frederik and Fisker Karma

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Not surprisingly, automotive journalists compete to be the first to drive the latest new cars. Some crave Chevies, others follow Ferrari.

Here at GreenCarReports.com, we want to be among the first to drive electric cars and other plug-ins, new hybrids, clean diesels, and so forth. We've driven a lot of them, but one we haven't is the Fisker Karma extended-range electric sports sedan.

But we don't feel singled out. No one outside the Fisker development team has ever driven one. Not a single person. Until now.

So who gets the first drive? Noted auto afficionado Jay Leno, perhaps? Vice President Joe Biden, who blurted out Fisker's future model lineup at a recent event to mark Fisker's purchase of a former GM plant in Delaware?

Nope. It was His Royal Highness Frederik.

(Oh, ummmm, you mean you didn't know? He's the Crown Prince of Denmark. And, yes, to be honest, we too had momentarily forgotten that Denmark had royalty at all.)

HRH Frederik will drive the Fisker Karma to and from an event today connected to the global climate summit now taking place in Copenhagen.

Fisker says the Karma sedan will travel 50 miles on electric power provided from its 22-kilowatt-hour battery pack, and another 250 miles on electricity generated by its 2.4-liter GM Ecotec direct-injected four-cylinder engine. The all-wheel-drive car is powered by two 150-kilowatt electric motors, one per axle. Fisker quotes a 0-to-62-mph time of about 6 seconds, along with a top speed of more than 125 miles per hour.

Fisker Automotive was founded by Danish auto designer (aha, there's a clue!) Henrik Fisker. He also created the BMW Z8, and two Aston-Martin models. Deliveries of the Karma are promised to begin between July and September of 2010, at a price of $87,400 (before a $7,500 Federal tax credit).

So we'll hang out and wait our turn in line along with the rest of the scribbling hordes and tweeting masses. We can only quote our sister site CelebsAndCars.com in saying, "For now, if you'll allow the pun, it's the Karma that's making us its bitch."

But if we see Paris Hilton climbing out of one before we do, we're going to be pissed, OK?

[CelebsAndCars]

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