Plug-in Hero

James Bond owes a debt to Henrik Fisker, a renowned designer of cars built by BMW and Aston Martin—including two driven by 007 himself.  Now Fisker is turning his considerable experience to the as-yet untapped market for luxury green cars. In 2005, Fisker left as design director for Aston Martin to found his own company, Fisker Coachbuild, in Irvine, California. Teaming up with Quantum Technologies, a producer of alternative-fuel engines, Fisker wowed the Detroit Auto Show last month with the Fisker Karma, a plug-in hybrid electric sedan that not only runs 50 miles without gas, but looks good at the same time.

Fisker says the Karma will be available by the end of 2009, ahead of other plug-in hybrid offerings from bigger players like General Motors' Volt. With a price tag of $80,000, the Karma would be the first green luxury car on the market. Fisker talked with NEWSWEEK's Christopher Flavelle about whether the world is ready for plug-in luxury. Excerpts:

Flavelle: Why did you choose to build a plug-in hybrid car, instead of using other green technologies like hydrogen fuel cells?
Fisker: Fuel cells are too far out in the future. This is about what we can do now to make a drastic impact on the environment and to cut the import of foreign oil. For me, that's plug-in hybrid technology.

What makes the Fisker Karma unique?
The Karma is the first environmental car that involves absolutely no sacrifice for the consumer. It's the first sexy green car on the planet.

You said in January that the Karma would be the first plug-in hybrid on the market. Do you still expect to beat GM?
We're going to be on the market at end of 2009. I don't think it's important for GM to beat us, because we're in a different market, the luxury market. I think GM will probably be the first one in the mass market. But I think it would be important for BMW or Mercedes or Lexus to beat us, because that's their market. And they won't beat us.

How do you compete against the bigger automakers?
We're a smaller team, we're more efficient, and we can move faster. And the drive train had already been developed by Quantum. Therefore we're able to make money with an $80,000 car, where maybe a large manufacturer would not be able to because they have a higher overhead. And they have a much longer development period, which creates a much larger budget.