A $100,000 electric car (actually, plug-in hybrid) with super style, the Fisker Karma — it’s not the worst present you could receive on your 18th present, and I’m sure (somewhat) greenie Justin Bieber isn’t complaining, after receiving it from his campaign manager for his 18th birthday.
Justin Bieber's new electric car, as presented on Ellen.
Scott Braun, Bieber’s manager, actually presented Bieber with the car on Ellen (the Ellen Degeneres Show) today.
“We wanted to make sure, since you love cars, that when you’re on the road you are always looking environmentally friendly,” Braun said as DeGeneres smiled large. “And we decided to get you a car that would make you stand out. I think you know where I’m going, and you’re kind of freaking out right now. That’s a Fisker Karma.”
Bieber looked pretty surprised and enthused. Watch the video below:
The Fisker Karma is, of course, a fancy electric car. It’s also, just released in December, reportedly the first luxury electric car with extended range. You may have also noticed that the car includes a solar panel in the roof. But the Fisker Karma isn’t actually the greenest car in the world. The car only gets 30-50 miles on electricity alone.
Chris DeMorro of sister site Gas2 thinks a lot more support should be going to the even more popular, better-performing, and greener electric vehicles made by competitor Tesla than to Fisker, which is facing a bit of trouble with Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantees:
“If anything, Obama needs to cut off Fisker’s funding and double down on Tesla. I know that sounds harsh, but so far Tesla is the only company with the means to build electric cars with the range and performance of conventional gas-powered cars.”
Interestingly, Chris was quite into the Karma back in March 2011 (one year ago). At that time, he wrote: “It seems like its been a decade since Fisker first introduced the world to its super-sexy plug-in hybrid, the Karma (though it’s only just over three years). Finally though, the first Karma is complete, with more to come…. This has been a long time coming, and the Karma is at the top of the list of cars-I’d-give-up-beer-but-not-bacon-for. Never giving up bacon (and there’s always whiskey!)”
Chris now thinks that despite its very sexy look, after a less-than-spectacular release, it won’t come close to meeting its sales targets. He says he’ll be surprised if Fisker sells half of the 10,000 Karmas is expects to sell in 2012. We’ll see. I imagine Bieber getting the car might inspire some others in his income bracket to do so as well.. of course, it might also deter Bieber-haters from getting one. What are your thoughts on this?
h/t LA Times
I'm the director of CleanTechnica, the most popular clean energy website in the world, and Planetsave, a leading green and science news site. I've been covering green news of various sorts since 2008, and I've been especially focused on solar energy, electric vehicles, bicycling, and wind energy for the past few years. You can also find my work on Scientific American, Reuters, Think Progress, GE's ecomagination site, several sites in the Important Media network, & many other places. To connect on some of your favorite social networks, go to zacharyshahan.com or click on some of the links below.
