Fisker: Affordable “Project Nina” Plug-in Hybrids Due By 2013

By Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

3,626 views Oct 21, 2011

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Its first mass-produced car may have won the acrimonious title of being the plug-in car with the worst fuel efficiency to date, but Californian automaker Fisker is trying to remain upbeat about its planned range of plug-in hybrid cars. 

So much so, the Californian automaker is keen to let everyone know that it will start production of its range of plug-in cars based on the technology found in the Fisker Karma, by 2013.

Talking with The Detroit News, Fisker spokesman Roger Ormisher reiterated that the majority of Fisker’s half a billion dollars of Department of Energy loans isn’t being spent on its 52 MPGe plug-in luxury hybrid.

Instead, the money has gone towards helping Fisker tool up a a former GM plant in Delaware, as well as develop the various body styles that it has promised Project Nina will offer. 

First of these, a mid-size luxury sedan, will be expected to enter production before 2013, with full-scale production -- some 75,000 to 100,000 cars per year -- happening by mid 2013. 

Unlike the Fisker Karma Plug-in Series Hybrid, which uses a General-Motors sourced gasoline range-extending engine, the drivetrain in Project Nina will make use of a BMW-sourced four-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine.

Just like the Fisker Karma however, all Project Nina cars will still operate as plug-in series hybrids, meaning there will be no mechanical connection between the gasoline engine and the wheels. 

The other cars, the details of which Vice President Joe Biden blurted out nearly two years ago, will follow the mid-size sedan into production.

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