"Fisker Now Talking Topless Plug-In" Green Car Advisor

Fisker Now Talking Topless Plug-In

Designer Henrik Fisker and his no longer secret plug-in hybrid convertible.

Just a month after unveiling the curvaceous Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid concept that rocked the Detroit Auto Show, auto designer-car maker Henrik Fisker is showing around a convertible based on the same platform and hybrid-electric powertrain.

Fisker, chief executive of the eponymous Fisker Automotive in Irvine, Calif., showed a rendering of the unnamed convertible at a recent J.D.Power industry roundtable in San Francisco.

He tells Green Car Advisor that the photo (above) now making the rounds of automotive websites wasn't supposed to have been taken and doesn't represent what the convertible will actually look like.

"This was a meeting for some new car dealers and nobody was supposed to take any pictures," Fisker said. "but someone didâ€¦It's not anything like the way the car will finally look. It was just a preliminary concept drawing."

Still, it does show, and Fisker confirms, that he intends to have a convertible that future dealers can show next to the Karma sedan. There's also likely to be a coupe, if the business really does get off the ground.

Doubters
There are doubters who question his company's ability to get to market by 2010 – the schedule announced in Detroit – and the uberconfident Fisker doubtlessly is using his skill at the drawing table to keep potential investors interested in the project.

But Karma in two years might not be so far-fetched.

The production company is a joint venture of Fisker's exotic coach-building and design company (called Fisker Coachbuild, what else?) and Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, a company that should bring a lot of technical skill to the table.

Quantum, which began as a specialist in compressed natural gas fueling systems, has progressed into hydrogen storage and hybrid battery and powertrain development and for the past few years has been building prototype hybrid and fuel cell vehicles for the military.

Four Years of Testing
Alan Niedzwiecki, Quantum's president and chief executive and managing director of Fisker automotive, insists that the proprietary Q-Drive hybrid system to be deployed in the Karma and other Fisker Automotive vehicles has been tested more than any other out there.

That's because it was developed under a military contract and has been tested to "pretty demanding" military specs for the past three years, he said.

Neither Fisker nor Niedzwiecki will discuss details of the system except to describe it in broad terms as a series hybrid, like the proposed Chevrolet Volt.

Initially, the vehicle would run on battery power, the lithium ion batteries charged from the commercial grid while the car was garaged overnight. The batteries would be produced by a Canadian company – Advanced Lithium Power -- that Quantum helped start.

50 Miles on Juice
That first charge will provide up to 50 miles of all-electric range at highway speeds, Fisker said.

When the first charge was depleted, a small internal combustion engine that serves as an on-board generator would kick in, producing enough electricity to simultaneously recharge the battery pack and power the drive motor until the replenished batter pack could take over again.

That process would repeat itself until the car was shut down for the day and the batteries plugged into the owner's home recharging system.

Fisker said the system planned for the Karma should provide for up to 350 miles of continuous travel on a small tank of gas.