39 waiting in newark for 1/2 billion dollars & this is not a solyndra?

I was disappointed when I heard the mpg numbers, but to be fair to them this is not some economy car. It's more Aston Martin than Chevrolet.

The critical thing is does it displace oil? I think the answer is still yes since most, or a high percentage of all the owners will be using electricity to propel it most of the time. The people buying it will be so rich that they will likely have solar panels so it really does have a good chance of stopping a lot of oil being used over it's lifetime.

I suspect the extra weight is only partially to blame for the inefficiency of the Karma. Compared to the Volt the Karma uses 85% more fuel per mile in CS mode and 81% more kWh per mile in EV mode. The Karma weighs roughly 40% more than the Volt.

I think all of the media should have their knives out when the government gives a car company $529 million and they outsource the jobs to Finland. (A fact you somehow failed to mention).

"there is no environmental guilt with this thing"

That is an incorrect thought. Energy has to come from somewhere. It's not free. Wasting energy for no apparent reason still causes harm to "sthg." That's what "conservation of energy" really stands. Be in from coal plant, or even solar. Wasting energy means more electricity or gasoline that could be used for sthg else, being wasted. Don't forget, there's wear and tear on the energy supplying infrastructure too. The goal in being green here is - use wisely.

Having said that, I'm guessing that Fisker didn't really test the vehicle using the actual vehicle, but prototypes that don't have heavy leather seats, solar roof, infotainment system, insulation system, AC, etc. or even just simulation tests on engine itself, hence ignoring steering (not sure if it's drive by wire), suspensions, driveshaft (it's RWD, so intrinsic heavy unless engine mounted at back like Porsche) etc. Whoever simulated the situation in either case forgot to include the weight of those components. In addition, there maybe other cost cutting measure to ensure profit margin (since price have already been raised a couple of times, I think).

This one is probably being categorized as good strategy, poor execution in my book.

Lot's of comments, but little substance when it's mostly all conjecture. I have driven one and it was awesome. Felt like a vault - solid, quiet and handled very well around the streets and on the Santa Monica freeway. Had four adults in the car, all were comfortable and cool. Try that in a Tesla. Fisker is right. When I take delivery next month the majority of my trips will be less than 30 miles, so it'll be a long time before I will have to visit another gasoline station, thank you very much!

As anonymous wrote in the first comment, they have roughly 3000 advance order deposits (of $5k each). Clearly, many are not happy about the repeated delays and the miss on the target numbers, so they might lose a few along the way, but they still do have 3000 advance orders.

As for the weight, and relatively low efficiency, remember:

- It's a Luxury Liner. These are generally pretty heavy.

- It has enormous (and very sticky) wheels: 22 inch rims with specialty tires. No low-rolling-resistance stuff here. For $6k you can get steel winter rims (21 inch) and winter tires (I'm going to need those myself, if I take the plunge). (Incidentally, replacement tires are at least $400 each and one is likely to need them pretty often—budget appropriately!)

- As a start-up trying to scrounge up parts from suppliers, Fisker had to make at least a few compromises. The gasoline engine is a the 2-liter turbocharged engine off the old Pontiac Solstice GXP (the "LNF" version: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_Family_II_engine for details). This got a only little over 20 mpg in the Solstice, which is considerably lighter; plus, Fisker had to derate it a little for noise control, at the last minute, and I suspect this hurt the EPA test results. (No idea how much effect it will have on real-world mileage. The EPA test system for these kinds of hybrids is obviously somewhat off, given that Volt owners report substantially higher real-world gasoline-mode mileage than the EPA estimate.)

- The other big compromise they had to make, of course, was outsourcing production of the vehicle. With a boutique-size run planned (7 to 15 thousand per year), there are not too many places in the world that were interested. Hence the Valmet facility, which turns out Porsche Boxsters in similar numbers (6 to 8 thousand per year in the North American market, up until the bottom fell out on that particular item).

All in all, it's a very attractive car for $100k, provided you're willing to spend $100k on a car (any car!) in the first place. I'm seriously considering it, to the extent of including space for it in my house remodeling project now underway. Another option is to wait 2+ years for the Nina, which will have a much less compromised gasoline engine (BMW's supercharged) and should benefit a lot from reduced battery pack weight (this last is an assumption on my part).