By Evan Ackerman
Doesn’t the Fisker Karma look pleased with itself, with that big smiley front grille and anime happy taillights? Well, it should be happy, since it’s going into production in early 2010. We saw a preview of it at the North American International Auto Show earlier this year, and the good news is that most of the cool little toys (most notably the solar cell covered roof) and the curvaceous and (I can’t stop noticing) weirdly happy styling have been left intact. Most importantly, so has the hybrid plug-in electric and gas powered drivetrain, which gives the Karma a 50 mile electric-only range and an unspecified gas enhanced range, not to mention 400+ HP and a top speed of somewhere over 125 mph.
Inevitably, the price has climbed from $80,000 to $87,000, and they’ve still got a year to go before you’ll be able to buy one. But as with the Tesla roadster, if you want one of these, a couple (or ten) thousand extra isn’t going to stop you.