Plug-in Hero

Al Gore has already ordered one of your cars. Any other celebrity orders?
What I can tell you is that since we showed the car in January, we're getting about a hundred orders a week. Considering that we're an unknown brand, that shows a huge untapped market for good-looking environmental cars. Right now the image of an environmental car is a bad-looking, tiny little vehicle.

Lithium ion batteries used in laptop computers have been known to burst into flames. Are you worried about convincing people that those same batteries will be safe in cars?
We're using different chemistry than what's used in laptop computer batteries. We've solved the issues with overheating. And we've solved the lifespan issue, which is now a minimum of ten years for our battery.

Bricklin has promised a plug-in hybrid car that can run 50 miles on a single battery charge – the same distance as the Karma, but for just $35,000. Are people going to pay a $45,000 premium for the Karma?
We'll always have different [market] segments of cars. You will always have a Volkswagen, you will always have a BMW, and you will always have a Ferrari. Those are three different markets, and you will have the same with plug-in hybrid cars. But the reason we made an $80,000 car is because the drive train alone is very expensive. At this point, I don't see a business case for a plug-in hybrid vehicle that would be $35,000, because the power train is so expensive.

You've trumpeted the Karma as a car with an environmental conscience. But by targeting the luxury market, aren't you limiting the benefit of that green technology?
I wanted to create a car in the luxury market because I feel that the people that are most responsible to make a change are the people who can pay for the new technology to make that change. The guy who works at McDonald's, I don't think it's his responsibility to be the first guy out there to pay for this technology. I think it's the people who have the money. These people are the trendsetters everybody else will follow.

When you worked at Aston Martin, you designed the car that James Bond drove in "Casino Royale." Do you think Bond will ever take time between villains and martinis to plug in his car?
I'm sure James Bond has to plug in his cell phone at night just like everybody else. If he can plug in his phone, he can plug in his car. I think we'll have heroes driving around in plug-in hybrids, because with a plug-in hybrid you can drive completely silently. Which is very good when you have a secret mission.

© 2008