"If I say ‘electric,’ people think ’slow.’ They think electric cars are golf carts," Malcolm Bricklin, chairman and chief executive of Visionary Vehicles, said at the much-concluded NAIAS. "What people don’t get is they’re very fast, and they’re real."
Take the Karma car built by Fisker. The sports car can accelerate from 0-60 mph in 5.8 seconds and can reach a top speed of 125 mph. However, the Karma can travel 50 miles on electric power alone utilizing a reliable lithium-ion battery and an electric motor. The sports car bearing a $80,000 price sticker is set to kick off at the end of next year.
Outside, the sports car will remind aficionados of a Maserati or a Corvette. The austere interior, with rich brown and tan leathers and buttons that are flush with the dashboard, was inspired by a Manhattan penthouse, said Henrik Fisker, founder and CEO of Lake Forest, California-based Fisker Automotive.
"I wanted to make a real statement of how sexy a green car can be," he told Seattle Times. “Otherwise, green cars will never achieve the mass appeal needed to make an environmental difference.”
Fisker predicts Karma global sales of 15,000 annually. Fisker Automotive is talking to several companies about a partnership to distribute the vehicle and should have more details in spring, he said.
"We know the system works," said Alan Niedzwiecki, a Fisker director and CEO of Quantum Fuel Systems, an investor in the carmaker. "We’ve had it for four years from a vehicle we did for the Department of Defense."
Aaron Bragman, an analyst with Global Insight, a consulting firm, said that there is a market for expensive, environmentally friendly vehicles, but that it will be difficult for small manufacturers to do what giants like GM and Toyota have failed at because of cost and technological difficulties.
With the advent of innovations and discoveries, a Lund Superstep running board kit is expected to improve, cars will be better and driving more satisfying.