karma

Green automaker signs up 32 retailers

Premium green automaker Fisker Automotive announced today that it has signed up its first group of 32 U.S. retailers to market and service its luxury plug-in hybrid vehicles, beginning with the $87,900, 100mpg Karma sedan later this year.

Thirty-two retailers located in 17 states--Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, Virginia, and Wisconsin, and one Canadian Province, British Columbia--have confirmed their intent to carry the Fisker marquee. The carmaker hopes to have 40 locations across the country by the end of June 2009.

By keeping start-up costs low … Read more

Production Fisker Karma revealed early

The world of plug-in hybrids is about to get a whole lot sexier when the production Fisker Karma debuts at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show.

Fisker has released early photos of the production version of the Karma, which isn't that much different from the concept revealed earlier this year at the 2008 Detroit Show.

Its mustachioed face has survived the jump to production essentially intact, although the lower grill opening has been enlarged a bit, to make it more practical for cooling we'd assume. Amber reflectors have been added to the leading edge of the wheel well and … Read more

Video: Detroit, watch out for this Karma

On a test track in Southern California, a radical new car is getting its first workout.

The zebra stripes camouflage it from competitors, but you still get a good sense of the Fisker Automotive Karma, the brainchild of designer Henrik Fisker, who's trying to succeed where Detroit so far has failed, CBS News business correspondent Anthony Mason reports.

"The vision is to do a high performance, luxurious, sexy-looking car which gets better miles per gallon than the Prius," Fisker said.

The Karma is a plug-in hybrid. It can go 50 miles on an electrical charge before a … Read more

Gadgettes 74: The What the Hell? Episode

Top five sports cars from Detroit

There was no shortage of sexy, sporty cars at this year's North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Here are my favorites (in somewhat of a particular order):

5. Mazda Furai concept

The race-bred concept, which means "wind" in Japanese, is based on the Courage C65 chassis, which Mazda used in the American Le Mans Series two seasons previously. It has a three-rotor rotary engine that's capable of churning out 450 horsepower. And while it looks awesome, I'd say the chance that it goes into production is pretty slim.

4. 2009 Cadillac CTS-V

The uber-performance … Read more

IPKarma adds karma to your comments

Correction: IPKarma does use e-mail addresses instead of IP addresses to track users. The namesake is a "recursive acronym." More over at the FAQ.

IPKarma is a new karma system to help track users who comment on your blog. The twist is it doesn't just track them for you, but also for any other blog owner who has the plug-in installed. It tracks each user by their IP address (not their username or e-mail address) and automatically creates a user profile for them when they leave a comment. Similar to SezWho (coverage), other users can then click … Read more